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Sustainability, Transformational Leadership, and Social Entrepreneurship

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  • Etayankara Muralidharan

    (School of Business, MacEwan University, Edmonton, AB T5J 4S2, Canada)

  • Saurav Pathak

    (College of Business Administration, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA)

Abstract

This article examines the extent to which culturally endorsed transformational leadership theories (CLTs) and the sustainability of society, both considered societal level institutional indicators, impact the emergence of social entrepreneurship. Using 107,738 individual-level responses from 27 countries for the year 2009 obtained from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey, and supplementing with country-level data obtained from Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) and Sustainability Society Foundation (SSF), our findings from multilevel analysis show that transformational CLTs and sustainability conditions of society positively influence the likelihood of individuals becoming social entrepreneurs. Further, the effectiveness of transformational CLTs matters more for social entrepreneurship when the sustainability of society is low, which suggests the interaction between cultural leadership styles and societal sustainability. This article contributes to comparative entrepreneurship research by introducing strong cultural antecedents of social entrepreneurship in transformational CLTs and societal sustainability. We discuss various implications and limitations of our study, and we suggest directions for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Etayankara Muralidharan & Saurav Pathak, 2018. "Sustainability, Transformational Leadership, and Social Entrepreneurship," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-22, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:2:p:567-:d:133032
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    5. Wengang Zhang & Baiqing Sun & Feng Xu, 2020. "Promoting Green Product Development Performance via Leader Green Transformationality and Employee Green Self-Efficacy: The Moderating Role of Environmental Regulation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-17, September.
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    20. Michael Odei Erdiaw‐Kwasie & Matthew Abunyewah, 2024. "Determinants of social innovation in hybrid organisations: The moderating role of technology readiness," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 1099-1112, February.
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