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Entrepreneurial Leadership and Sustainable Development—A Systematic Literature Review

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  • Alexandrina Maria Pauceanu

    (Doctoral Business School, Geneva Business School, 08002 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Nada Rabie

    (College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zayed University, Dubai 4783, United Arab Emirates)

  • Ayman Moustafa

    (Department of Business Administration, British University in Dubai, Dubai 345015, United Arab Emirates)

  • Daniel Constantin Jiroveanu

    (Department of Management, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010371 Bucharest, Romania)

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to clarify the current literary inconsistencies regarding the characteristics of entrepreneurial leadership and its impact on sustainability. Additionally, another aim was to establish the framework of entrepreneurial leadership and to highlight the main gaps in the entrepreneurial leadership literature. The entrepreneurial leadership literature started to develop recently as a new leadership style that is required to fulfill the current business changes in the fourth industrial revolution. The researchers conducted a narrative literature review to assess the status of entrepreneurial leadership in academia, literature gaps, and the impact of entrepreneurial leadership on the sustainability performance of organizations. Furthermore, the researchers main aim was to investigate the following research question: is entrepreneurial leadership a fixed or a multidimensional concept that differs based on industry, context, and firm size? Regarding the answer to this question, the current study found that entrepreneurial leadership is a multidimensional concept as it is reflected in different perspectives, which indicates the inconsistency of the characteristics of entrepreneurial leadership claimed in the literature. Research limitations—the current study focused on assessing the literature review status of entrepreneurial leadership. Based on that, this study’s limitation is represented in not focusing on testing entrepreneurial leadership’s impact on sustainability either quantitatively or qualitatively. On the contrary, it contributed by analyzing the status of the entrepreneurial leadership literature. Future studies need to further assess this relationship between both concepts and reach an agreement about the common characteristics of entrepreneurial leadership. Originality/value—the current study contributes to the entrepreneurial leadership literature as it highlighted the existing gaps and the inconsistency in the literature. Additionally, it contributed theoretically by connecting entrepreneurial leadership to the existing literature. Furthermore, empirically, it highlighted the contribution of entrepreneurial leadership by emphasizing the impact of it on organizational sustainable development performance. This study represents a call for scholars to focus more on entrepreneurial leadership given its contribution to organizational performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandrina Maria Pauceanu & Nada Rabie & Ayman Moustafa & Daniel Constantin Jiroveanu, 2021. "Entrepreneurial Leadership and Sustainable Development—A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:11695-:d:662814
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Makna Ani Marlia & Rahmi Fahmy & Hendra Lukito & Donard Games, 2025. "An Exploratory Study on Effective Leadership and Change Management in the Transformation of Indonesian Public Universities Towards World-Class University Status," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-40, February.
    2. Theo Émile Ravet-Brown & Marco Furtner & Andreas Kallmuenzer, 2024. "Transformational and entrepreneurial leadership: A review of distinction and overlap," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 493-538, February.
    3. Badrea Al-Oraini & Aayad Aleid, 2025. "The Impact of Entrepreneurial Leadership on Employee Turnover Intention through Organizational Commitment," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 20(5), pages 1-50, October.
    4. Ingrid R. Epezagne Assamala & Wenyuan Li & Sheikh Farhan Ashraf & Nausheen Syed & He Di & Mehrab Nazir, 2022. "Mediation-Moderation Model: An Empirical Examination of Sustainable Women Entrepreneurial Performance towards Agricultural SMEs in Ivory Coast," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, May.
    5. Urszula Słupska & Zbigniew Drewniak & Rafał Drewniak & Robert Karaszewski, 2022. "Building Relations between the Company and Employees: The Moderating Role of Leadership," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-14, July.
    6. Ahmed M. Asfahani, 2023. "Green HRM and Servant Leadership: Driving Competitive Advantage and Environmental Performance in Higher Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-18, May.
    7. Rajia Ageli & Ahmad Bassam Alzubi & Hasan Yousef Aljuhmani & Kolawole Iyiola, 2025. "How and When Entrepreneurial Leadership Drives Sustainable Bank Performance: Unpacking the Roles of Employee Creativity and Innovation-Oriented Climate," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-31, October.
    8. Diele Lobo & Ana Carolina Rodriguez & Silvia Pereira de Castro Casa Nova & Alexandre A. Ardichvili, 2022. "Five Practices for Building Local Capacity in Sustainability-Driven Entrepreneurship for Place-Based Transformations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-37, March.

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