Contextual and Interactional Approaches to Advancing Leadership and Entrepreneurship Research

• Author: Jon C. Carr,Bradley L. Kirkman,Andrew C. Corbett,Jeffrey M. Pollack,Corinne Post,Franz W. Kellermanns,Crystal L. Hoyt
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12605
• Date: 01 July 2020
• Published date: 01 July 2020

© 2020 Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Contextual and Interactional Approaches to Advancing

Leadership and Entrepreneurship Research

Jeffrey M. Pollacka, Jon C. Carra, Andrew C. Corbettb,

Crystal L. Hoytc, Franz W. Kellermannsd,

Bradley L. Kirkmana and Corinne Poste

aNC State University; bBabson College and Nord University; cUniversity of Richmond; dBelk College of

Business & WHU; e Lehigh University

ABSTRACT In this introductory article for the special issue of Journal of Management Studies, enti-

tled ‘Leading Entrepreneurial Ventures: Individual and Team-Based Per spectives’, we leverage

insights in the extant literature as well as those insights developed by the authors of the four

articles published in response to our call for papers. Overall, we explore multiple nuanced ques-

tions with regards to research on entrepreneurship, research on leadership, and their intersec-

tion. Our goal is to begin to help guide research on entrepreneurship and leadership, and their

intersection, for the next decade.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, followers, leaders, leadership, psychology, self-leadership

INTRODUCTION

Considerable interest exists regarding the linkages between leadership and entrepreneur-

ship research (Vecchio, 2003). For example, recent work has explored the topic of stra-

tegic leadership in entrepreneurial contexts at a predominantly macro level of analysis

(e.g., Special Issue in Jour nal of Management Studies; Simsek et al., 2015). Likewise, the

examination of the linkages between leadership and entrepreneurship has been explored

in more detail with respect to the opportunistic characteristics that are often associated

with new venture creation (Reid et al., 2018).

Journal of Man agement Studi es 57:5 July 2020

doi:10. 1111/j om s.1 26 05

Address for reprints: Jeffrey M. Pollack, Management, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship Department, Box 7229,

Poole College of Management, NC State University, Raleigh, NC. 27695 (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu).

Authors after Pollack and Carr contributed equally and are listed alphabetically. The authors gratefully ac-

knowledge Gemma Parkinson, Margaret Turner, and the Society for the Advancement of Management

Studies (SAMS) for the generous support (both financial and time) in making this special issue as well as mini

conference possible. We also appreciate the feedback of JMS General Editor Don Siegel on this editorial.

916 J. M. Pollack et al.

© 2020 Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In terms of definitions, an entrepreneur is an individual (or team) engaged in the dis-

covery, evaluation, and implementation of opportunities that create value (Reid et al.,

2018). A leader is an individual who engages in the process of influencing others and

facilitating efforts towards shared objectives (Yukl, 2013). And, the current state of the

literature suggests that, on the one hand, entrepreneurs are often characterized as op-

erating in unique, highly volatile, resource-constrained, and uncertain environments re-

quiring leadership-related attributes and behaviours to effectively manage the complexities

of the new venture process (e.g., Kuratko, 2007; Leitch and Volery, 2017). On the other

hand, it has been argued that organizations of all kinds, operating in environments of

all types, need to institutionalize entrepreneurial thinking in their leadership (Corbett, 2018;

O’Connor et al., 2018a; 2018b).

Considering this state of the literature, it seems reasonable to ask: ‘Are all leaders nec-

essarily entrepreneurial?’. Or, ‘Are all entrepreneurs essentially leaders, but just within

a specific context?’. Research continues in, and across, the two research domains of

leadership and entrepreneurship and, perhaps not surprisingly, there is ambiguity about

whether and to what extent these two potentially disparate areas of research reflect sim-

ilar theoretical linkages and foundational characteristics (Cogliser and Brigham, 2004;

Reid et al., 2018). It is this conundrum in the literature that inspired this special issue.

In the following sections, we first look at the possible approaches that can be used to

organize how leadership and entrepreneurship research are related. Second, we use the

specific articles in this special issue to illuminate the complex relationships between the

research domains of leadership and entrepreneurship. Third, and finally, we provide an

organizing framework that leverages our approaches to hopefully provide guidance for

future research involving leadership and entrepreneurship perspectives.

Leadership and Entrepreneurship as Multidisciplinary Fields

The academic domains of leadership and entrepreneurship are both broad fields of

research. Entrepreneurship, specifically, is a ‘multidisciplinary jigsaw’ (Harrison and

Leitch, 1996, p. 69) that is linked to many different intra- and interdisciplinary fields.

Historically grounded in economics at the macro level, entrepreneurship has been stud-

ied from numerous perspectives, including organizational strategy (Hitt et al., 2011;

Powell and Baker, 2014), psychology (Michaelis et al., 2019), finance (Davila et al., 2003),

marketing (Matthews et al., 2018), and international business (McDougall et al., 1994).

Likewise, leadership research is also typically broadly applied, to include research that

ranges from individual and team-level examinations within organizational behaviour,

to strategic leadership and organizational-level conversations that have used leadership

theories and principles to explain individual and organizational-level behaviour (Simsek

et al., 2015). Given the broad nature of each field, it is natural that the leadership and en-

trepreneurship literatures have often been associated with each other (e.g., Cogliser and

Brigham, 2004; Reid et al., 2018), with different authors advocating various viewpoints

about whether they are the same or distinct (Vecchio, 2003).

Our perspective is that the leadership and entrepreneurship literatures are neither

completely the same, nor are they or completely distinct. Accordingly, we suggest that

there are two main approaches, with respect to examining fields of research, that can