IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v157y2023ics0148296322010098.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Entrepreneurial leadership, strategic flexibility, and venture performance: Does founders' span of control matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Hensellek, Simon
  • Kleine-Stegemann, Lucas
  • Kollmann, Tobias

Abstract

While research provides consistent evidence on the relationship between leadership and firm performance, little is known about the mechanisms and organizational context through which founders’ entrepreneurial leadership behaviors affect venture performance. Building on and extending the upper echelons theory, our study uses data on 507 entrepreneurial ventures and finds that strategic flexibility is an important strategic capability that positively mediates the link between entrepreneurial leadership and venture performance. We introduce span of control—measured by the number of employees per founder—as an important structural variable that moderates these relationships. Notably, strategic flexibility fully mediates the leadership–performance relationship only at low to moderate levels of span of control, and not at high numbers of employees per founder. Finally, we discuss the study’s implications in the light of upper echelons theory and how they can guide founders’ leadership behavior in practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Hensellek, Simon & Kleine-Stegemann, Lucas & Kollmann, Tobias, 2023. "Entrepreneurial leadership, strategic flexibility, and venture performance: Does founders' span of control matter?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:157:y:2023:i:c:s0148296322010098
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113544
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322010098
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113544?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johan Wiklund & Dean Shepherd, 2003. "Aspiring for, and Achieving Growth: The Moderating Role of Resources and Opportunities," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(8), pages 1919-1941, December.
    2. James J. Chrisman & Alan Bauerschmidt & Charles W. Hofer, 1998. "The Determinants of New Venture Performance: An Extended Model," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 23(1), pages 5-29, October.
    3. Dabić, Marina & Stojčić, Nebojša & Simić, Marijana & Potocan, Vojko & Slavković, Marko & Nedelko, Zlatko, 2021. "Intellectual agility and innovation in micro and small businesses: The mediating role of entrepreneurial leadership," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 683-695.
    4. Kathleen M. Eisenhardt & Nathan R. Furr & Christopher B. Bingham, 2010. "CROSSROADS---Microfoundations of Performance: Balancing Efficiency and Flexibility in Dynamic Environments," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(6), pages 1263-1273, December.
    5. Stenholm, Pekka & Renko, Maija, 2016. "Passionate bricoleurs and new venture survival," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 595-611.
    6. Massimo G. Colombo & Luca Grilli, 2013. "The Creation of A Middle‐Management Level by Entrepreneurial Ventures: Testing Economic Theories of Organizational Design," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 390-422, June.
    7. Kollmann, Tobias & Stöckmann, Christoph & Niemand, Thomas & Hensellek, Simon & de Cruppe, Katharina, 2021. "A configurational approach to entrepreneurial orientation and cooperation explaining product/service innovation in digital vs. non-digital startups," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 508-519.
    8. Colombo, Massimo G. & Rossi-Lamastra, Cristina & Matassini, Beatrice, 2016. "The Organizational Design of High-Tech Entrepreneurial Ventures," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 11(6), pages 427-523, February.
    9. Bruce R. Barringer & Allen C. Bluedorn, 1999. "The relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and strategic management," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 421-444, May.
    10. Connie Marie Gaglio, 2004. "The Role of Mental Simulations and Counterfactual Thinking in the Opportunity Identification Process," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 28(6), pages 533-552, November.
    11. Newman, Alexander & Tse, Herman H.M. & Schwarz, Gary & Nielsen, Ingrid, 2018. "The effects of employees' creative self-efficacy on innovative behavior: The role of entrepreneurial leadership," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 1-9.
    12. Doutriaux, Jerome, 1992. "Emerging high-tech firms: How durable are their comparative start-up advantages?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 303-322, July.
    13. Gita Surie & Allan Ashley, 2008. "Integrating Pragmatism and Ethics in Entrepreneurial Leadership for Sustainable Value Creation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(1), pages 235-246, August.
    14. Harrison, David A. & McLaughlin, Mary E. & Coalter, Terry M., 1996. "Context, Cognition, and Common Method Variance: Psychometric and Verbal Protocol Evidence," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 246-261, December.
    15. Gumusluoglu, Lale & Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Zahide & Hirst, Giles, 2013. "Transformational leadership and R&D workers' multiple commitments: Do justice and span of control matter?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2269-2278.
    16. Sucheta Nadkarni & V. K. Narayanan, 2007. "Strategic schemas, strategic flexibility, and firm performance: the moderating role of industry clockspeed," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 243-270, March.
    17. Kathleen M. Eisenhardt & Jeffrey A. Martin, 2000. "Dynamic capabilities: what are they?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(10‐11), pages 1105-1121, October.
    18. Johannes Brunzel, 2021. "Overconfidence and narcissism among the upper echelons: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(3), pages 585-623, July.
    19. Sea-Jin Chang & Arjen van Witteloostuijn & Lorraine Eden, 2010. "From the Editors: Common method variance in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(2), pages 178-184, February.
    20. Kevin Zheng Zhou & Fang Wu, 2010. "Technological capability, strategic flexibility, and product innovation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 547-561, May.
    21. Ari Jantunen & Kaisu Puumalainen & Sami Saarenketo & Kalevi Kyläheiko, 2005. "Entrepreneurial Orientation, Dynamic Capabilities and International Performance," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 223-243, September.
    22. Paul D. Collins & Frank Hull, 1986. "Technology And Span Of Control: Woodward Revisited," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 143-164, March.
    23. Harry P. Bowen & Margarethe F. Wiersema, 1999. "Matching method to paradigm in strategy research: limitations of cross‐sectional analysis and some methodological alternatives," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(7), pages 625-636, July.
    24. Michael Jensen & Edward J. Zajac, 2004. "Corporate elites and corporate strategy: how demographic preferences and structural position shape the scope of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(6), pages 507-524, June.
    25. Henk W. Volberda, 1996. "Toward the Flexible Form: How to Remain Vital in Hypercompetitive Environments," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(4), pages 359-374, August.
    26. David J. Teece, 2012. "Dynamic Capabilities: Routines versus Entrepreneurial Action," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(8), pages 1395-1401, December.
    27. Ensley, Michael D. & Pearce, Craig L. & Hmieleski, Keith M., 2006. "The moderating effect of environmental dynamism on the relationship between entrepreneur leadership behavior and new venture performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 243-263, March.
    28. Saerom (Ronnie) Lee, 2022. "The myth of the flat start‐up: Reconsidering the organizational structure of start‐ups," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 58-92, January.
    29. Adam J. Bock & Tore Opsahl & Gerard George & David M. Gann, 2012. "The Effects of Culture and Structure on Strategic Flexibility during Business Model Innovation," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 279-305, March.
    30. Lee Cronbach, 1951. "Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 16(3), pages 297-334, September.
    31. Ye Dai & John C. Goodale & Gukdo Byun & Fangsheng Ding, 2018. "Strategic Flexibility in New High†Technology Ventures," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 265-294, March.
    32. Maija Renko & Ayman Tarabishy & Alan L. Carsrud & Malin Brännback, 2012. "Entrepreneurial Leadership and the Family Business," International Studies in Entrepreneurship, in: ALAN CARSRUD & Malin Brännback (ed.), Understanding Family Businesses, chapter 0, pages 169-184, Springer.
    33. Sarabi, Almasa & Froese, Fabian J. & Chng, Daniel H.M. & Meyer, Klaus E., 2020. "Entrepreneurial leadership and MNE subsidiary performance: The moderating role of subsidiary context," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(3).
    34. Richard Arend, 2014. "Entrepreneurship and dynamic capabilities: how firm age and size affect the ‘capability enhancement–SME performance’ relationship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 33-57, January.
    35. Baron, Robert A. & Tang, Jintong, 2011. "The role of entrepreneurs in firm-level innovation: Joint effects of positive affect, creativity, and environmental dynamism," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 49-60, January.
    36. Shaker A. Zahra & James C. Hayton & Donald O. Neubaum & Clay Dibrell & Justin Craig, 2008. "Culture of Family Commitment and Strategic Flexibility: The Moderating Effect of Stewardship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 32(6), pages 1035-1054, November.
    37. Maija Renko & Ayman El tarabishy & Alan L. Carsrud & Malin Brännback, 2015. "Understanding and Measuring Entrepreneurial Leadership Style," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(1), pages 54-74, January.
    38. Sabatino, Michele, 2016. "Economic crisis and resilience: Resilient capacity and competitiveness of the enterprises," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1924-1927.
    39. Díaz-Fernández, M. Carmen & González- Rodríguez, M. Rosario & Simonetti, Biagio, 2020. "Top management team diversity and high performance: An integrative approach based on upper echelons and complexity theory," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 157-168.
    40. Gupta, Vipin & MacMillan, Ian C. & Surie, Gita, 2004. "Entrepreneurial leadership: developing and measuring a cross-cultural construct," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 241-260, March.
    41. Henry Kaiser, 1974. "An index of factorial simplicity," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 39(1), pages 31-36, March.
    42. Ignacio G. Vaccaro & Justin J. P. Jansen & Frans A. J. Van Den Bosch & Henk W. Volberda, 2012. "Management Innovation and Leadership: The Moderating Role of Organizational Size," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 28-51, January.
    43. Barbara S. Lawrence, 1997. "Perspective---The Black Box of Organizational Demography," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(1), pages 1-22, February.
    44. Qing Miao & Nathan Eva & Alexander Newman & Brian Cooper, 2019. "CEO Entrepreneurial Leadership and Performance Outcomes of Top Management Teams in Entrepreneurial Ventures: The Mediating Effects of Psychological Safety," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(3), pages 1119-1135, July.
    45. Linlin Jin & Kristen Madison & Nils D. Kraiczy & Franz W. Kellermanns & T. Russell Crook & Jing Xi, 2017. "Entrepreneurial Team Composition Characteristics and New Venture Performance: A Meta–Analysis," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(5), pages 743-771, September.
    46. Sigal Haber & Arie Reichel, 2005. "Identifying Performance Measures of Small Ventures—The Case of the Tourism Industry," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 257-286, July.
    47. Ming‐Jer Chen & Hao‐Chieh Lin & John G. Michel, 2010. "Navigating in a hypercompetitive environment: the roles of action aggressiveness and TMT integration," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(13), pages 1410-1430, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Omar Radwan Traboulsy, 2023. "The Role of Resource Acquisition in Achieving Sustainable Competitive Performance for SMEs in an Emerging Market: A Moderated Mediation Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-21, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Galina Shirokova & Liudmila Ivvonen & Elena Gafforova, 2019. "Strategic Entrepreneurship in Russia during Economic Crisis," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 13(3), pages 62-76.
    2. Jin Li & Lulu Zhou & Xufan Zhang & Zhihong Chen & Feng Tian, 2018. "Technological Configuration Capability, Strategic Flexibility, and Organizational Performance in Chinese High-Tech Organizations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-17, May.
    3. Xiao Zhang & Luqun Xie & Jiatao Li & Li Cheng, 2022. "“Outside in”: Global demand heterogeneity and dynamic capabilities of multinational enterprises," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(4), pages 709-722, June.
    4. Ralf Meinhardt & Sebastian Junge & Martin Weiss, 2018. "The organizational environment with its measures, antecedents, and consequences: a review and research agenda," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 68(2), pages 195-235, April.
    5. Sabina Tasheva & Bo Bernhard Nielsen, 0. "The role of global dynamic managerial capability in the pursuit of international strategy and superior performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    6. Liu, Yi & Liao, Yonghai & Li, Yuan, 2018. "Capability configuration, ambidexterity and performance: Evidence from service outsourcing sector," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 343-352.
    7. Daniel Leunbach & Truls Erikson & Max Rapp-Ricciardi, 2020. "Muddling through Akerlofian and Knightian uncertainty: The role of sociobehavioral integration, positive affective tone, and polychronicity," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 145-164, June.
    8. Stav Fainshmidt & Amir Pezeshkan & M. Lance Frazier & Anil Nair & Edward Markowski, 2016. "Dynamic Capabilities and Organizational Performance: A Meta-Analytic Evaluation and Extension," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(8), pages 1348-1380, December.
    9. Mengmeng Meng & Jiasu Lei & Jie Jiao & Qiuyan Tao, 2020. "How does strategic flexibility affect bricolage: The moderating role of environmental turbulence," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-18, August.
    10. Jose L. Barbero & Alicia Ramos & Catherine Chiang, 2017. "Restructuring in dynamic environments: a dynamic capabilities perspective," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 26(4), pages 593-615.
    11. Miguel Perez‐Valls & Jose Cespedes‐Lorente & Juan Moreno‐Garcia, 2016. "Green Practices and Organizational Design as Sources of Strategic Flexibility and Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(8), pages 529-544, December.
    12. Yang, Wei & Meyer, Klaus E., 2020. "How do local and foreign firms compete? Competitive actions in an emerging economy," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(3).
    13. Tobias Kollmann & Simon Hensellek & Philipp Benedikt Jung & Katharina de Cruppe, 2023. "How bricoleurs go international: a European cross-country study considering the moderating role of governmental entrepreneurship support programs," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 1126-1159, June.
    14. Shiwangi Singh & Sanjay Dhir & Stuart Evans & Sushil, 2021. "The Trajectory of Two Decades of Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management and Flexibility Research: A Bibliometric Analysis," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 22(4), pages 377-401, December.
    15. Gelhard, Carsten & von Delft, Stephan, 2016. "The role of organizational capabilities in achieving superior sustainability performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4632-4642.
    16. Miroshnychenko, Ivan & Strobl, Andreas & Matzler, Kurt & De Massis, Alfredo, 2021. "Absorptive capacity, strategic flexibility, and business model innovation: Empirical evidence from Italian SMEs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 670-682.
    17. Karpinskaya, E. & Shirokova, G., 2018. "Entrepreneurial Leadership: Approaches to Concept Definition and Main Research Directions," Working Papers 15111, Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University.
    18. Cheng, Colin C.J. & Krumwiede, Dennis, 2017. "What makes a manufacturing firm effective for service innovation? The role of intangible capital under strategic and environmental conditions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 113-122.
    19. De Cock, Robin & Denoo, Lien & Clarysse, Bart, 2020. "Surviving the emotional rollercoaster called entrepreneurship: The role of emotion regulation," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(2).
    20. Agnes Asemokha & Jackson Musona & Lasse Torkkeli & Sami Saarenketo, 2019. "Business model innovation and entrepreneurial orientation relationships in SMEs: Implications for international performance," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 425-453, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:157:y:2023:i:c:s0148296322010098. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.