Entrepreneurship and leadership

Abstract

Throughout much of its history, the domain of entrepreneurship has attempted to identify the enterprising individual. This chapter encourages psychology and entrepreneurship researchers to build on past leadership studies for development of entrepreneurship theory and methodology. We begin with a reminder that entrepreneurs do not need to convince only themselves when starting a new business: Perhaps even more importantly, they need to convince their customers, external resource holders, and their employees of the viability, worthiness, and value of their vision. Entrepreneurs need to paint a vision that is uplifting, convincing, and resonates with the desires of those who need to comply with their vision. Entrepreneurs need to use this vision to inspire internal and external followers. Entrepreneurs need to project and inspire confidence that the vision is achievable. Finally, entrepreneurs need to manage the process of organizational emergence in such as way as to achieve the transfer from a vision to an ongoing, institutionalized mode of transacting within a given social and economic context. These objectives cannot easily be attained by relying solely on the force of one’s own personality traits, one’s desire for achievement, or one’s tendency to overestimate one’s own strengths and underestimate risks, nor can they be easily attained through sheer persistence, tenaciousness, or low vulnerability. Something more is required-qualities that are projected through behaviors in daily encounters: leadership.

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