Robustness of the transformational leadership towards corporate entrepreneurship

• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Author: Bahadur Ali Soomro,Naimatullah Shah
• Date: 01 May 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2509

ACADEMIC PAPER

Robustness of the transformational leadership towards

corporate entrepreneurship

Bahadur Ali Soomro

1

| Naimatullah Shah

2,3

1

Economics, Federal Urdu University of Arts,

Science and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan

2

College of Business Administration, Al

Yamamah University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

3

Department of Public Administration,

University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan

Correspondence

Bahadur Ali Soomro, Economics, Federal Urdu

University of Arts, Science and Technology,

Karachi, Pakistan.

Email: bahadur.ali@scholars.usindh.edu.pk

The present paper sought out to investigate the robustness of the transformational

leadership (TL) towards corporate entrepreneurship (CE). The study is quantitative.

The conceptual model is tested through cross-sectional data that are collected from

small and medium-sized enterprises of Pakistan. The owner/CEO/managers of SMEs

are targeted to get the response through a survey questionnaire. In total, 306 usable

samples are utilized for the final analysis. By employing to SEM, the overall findings

show a significant and positive impact of TL such as intellectual stimulation, idealized

influence, inspirational motivation, and individual consideration on CE (new business

venturing, innovativeness, self-renewal, and proactiveness) in SMEs sector of

Pakistan. The outcomes of the study may be helpful for policymakers to formulate

the policies regarding the promotion of TL and CE to reduce the failure rate in the

SMEs. Transformational leaders may develop creative and innovative ideas to

address the challenges of the organizations. Furthermore, the outcomes of the study

would contribute to the related literature, mainly for developing countries. The study

provides the real picture of the relationship between TL and CE in a developing

country.

1|INTRODUCTION

In the present era, to ge t the organizational goals, transformat ional

leadership (TL) is a crucial factor (Hill, Seo, Kang, & Taylor, 2012).

The base of TL is on the four main elements, including intellectual

stimulation (IS); i dealized influence ( II) or behavior and att ribute;

inspirational moti vation (IM); and indi vidual considerati on

(IC) (Bass, 1985;Burns,1978). More specifically, the IS element is

about the capacity of leaders to grow the enviro nment. Such devel-

opment is appropriat e for innovation and cr eativity, with the

employees' empowe rment or followers to r esolve the challen ging

concerns. Similarly, II creates the leaders to be the role models of

their followers (Bass, 1985). Besides, IM rema rks to the reality tha t

transformational l eaders set high potent ials on workforces an d

employ marks and images to accentuate effort and interconnect the

implication of objectives of the organization (Hoffman, Bynum, Pic-

colo, & Sutton, 2011). Lastly, IC has under lined the attentive ness of

leaders toward the ne eds of individuals to s upport them with thei r

growth and self-fulfillment.

The concept of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) underlines the

entrepreneurship happenings conducted within prevailing busi-

nesses (Javalgi, Hall, & Cavusgil, 2014). Such the entrepreneurial

actions involved in an NBV; self-renewal; innovation; risk-taking;

and proactivity (Schmelter, Mauer, Börsch, & Brettel, 2010). The

NBV is the establishment or conception of new business by conver-

ting the products of firms such as products, goods, and services and

the creation of new markets (Kuratko & Audretsch, 2013;Ramos-

González, Rubio-Andrés, & Sastre-Castillo, 2017). Similarly, the

assumption of innovation is about to bring the freshness or

improvement in available products, the growth of new and novel

production process.

Further, the self-renewal factor states to firms' conversion by

fulfilling the protagonist goals in which they were designed. It also

mentions to the significances of radical and strategic transforma-

tions, with transferring the business ideas, rearrangement, and initial

system-wide conversions for freshness. This is an entrepreneurial

attempt that conveys considerable fluctuations in business ven-

tures, hierarchy and corporate strategy. Such the changes convert

Received: 5 April 2020 Revised: 28 May 2020 Accepted: 15 September 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2509

J Public Affairs. 2022;22:e2509. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1of11

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2509