Entrepreneurial leadership for decision-making: the case of emerging economy SMEs in Iran

Considering that EL is yet to advance as a practice in leadership and SME research, this study operationalises it to develop understanding of its impact on decision-making in emerging economy SMEs. Twenty-five entrepreneurs sampled in three business clusters encompassing IT/software development, services and manufacturing/production, in Iran, provided data for analysis. Through analysing detailed narratives about their decision-making approaches, it emerged that the entrepreneurs matched operational ambiguities inherent in their businesses and distinct markets with a heterogeneous entrepreneurial architecture built upon leadership, heuristics, collectivism and social relations. To decipher their integrated decision-making structure, the research interweaved EL with behavioural decision and situated entrepreneurial cognition concepts leading to new theorisations about their decision-making approach. Thus, and by paying attention to the entrepreneurial orientation of decision makers in emerging economy SMEs, the study advances EL and SME research with profound theoretical and practical entrepreneurship implications for academics, practitioners, and policy institutions.