Entrepreneurial Leadership and Managerial Sustainability

Abstract

Entrepreneurial leadership has been tipped as one of the millennium solutions to challenges associated with the current competitive and dynamic global business environment. Majority of businesses operating in the localities of Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria including Ikot Ekpene and Uyo, the state capital are on small and medium scale. For decades now, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) are considered as an important aspect of Nigeria’s economy and this makes it quite necessary to investigate the extent to which entrepreneurial leadership behaviour may lead to managerial sustainability. Considering this fact, this study seeks to examine the effect of entrepreneurial leadership behaviour on managerial sustainability in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria. The study employed a quantitative survey research design. This study targeted a population of 135 owners/ managers who assume leadership positions in SMEs across Akwa Ibom state. This number cuts across sectors like food processing, livestock rearing, trading, art/craft, bakery, table water, fashion and designing/hair dressing and ICT. Out of this figure 101 owners/managers were selected to represent the sample through purposive sampling technique. The cleansed data was further quantitatively analyzed by product moment correlation and multiple regressions. Results of correlation analysis reveal that there is significant relationship between all the constructs of Entrepreneurial leadership (miner behavior, explorer behavior, accelerator behavior and integrator behavior) and managerial sustainability. The result of regression analysis showed that miner behavior, explorer behavior, accelerator behavior and integrator behavior jointly contribute to managerial sustainability. This study concludes that entrepreneurial leadership behaviors of managers/owners of SMEs significantly affect managerial sustainability of such SMEs. Arising from the findings and conclusion, it is recommended amongst others that mangers/owners of SMEs should enhance their innovation capacity and expand innovative entrepreneurship.