The Entrepreneur as the Servant Leader of Markets and Beyond

A 2004 article by Stone, Russell, and Patterson elucidated the characteristics and attributes that differentiate the servant leader from the transformational leader. Stone et al. (Leadership and Organization Development Journal 25:349–361, 2004) explained the differences between servant leadership and transformational leadership and their similarities. Both significant studies are rooted in Robert Greenleaf’s conceptualization of the servant leader which has been a ground-breaking piece of scholarly work that established what we call servant leadership. Their work has added to both theorists and practitioners a sense of interrelatedness between leader, follower, and purpose-driven action, focusing on followers’ betterment – the betterment of others – inspired by the unique characteristics possessed by the servant leader. The authors of this chapter postulate that entrepreneurs are servant leaders who pursue their mission through marketplaces. Servant entrepreneurs go beyond supply and demand by serving others entrepreneurially. Further, our basic axiom is that there is no followership without leadership, and without entrepreneurial leaders, there are no entrepreneurial followers to serve in marketplaces. This assertion raises the value of servant leadership as a characteristic of entrepreneurship. Unlike the other leadership variations, servant leadership focuses on followers. In the same way entrepreneurs focus on opportunities to serve marketplaces. This work extends to the servant leader characteristics of an entrepreneur and places the servant leadership characteristics outlined by Spears (Journal of Virtues and Leadership 1:25–30, 2010). The path-goal theory is extended to an entrepreneurial context, which serves as the underpinning of entrepreneurial leadership. A new extension of the path-goal theory explains how the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial follower transmits human capital. This current study brings forth qualitative characteristic connections between Spears’ (Journal of Virtues and Leadership 1:25–30, 2010) servant characteristics, path-goal theory of leadership, marketplace functions, and economic factors squarely related to the entrepreneur in the marketplace and beyond.