Entrepreneurial leadership in SMEs: perceptions of owner – managers vs. employees

The objective of this research is to investigate the perception of owner – managers and their employees regarding entrepreneurial leadership. To develop the research, two questions are raised related to the similarities or differences of the perceptions of both groups with what is established in the literature and between the self – evaluation of the owner – managers and their employees on whether the former perform as an entrepreneurial leader. As a research method, both groups are asked to perform, first individual evaluations and then to match certain behaviours and the levels at which they should appear at certain lev- els of entrepreneurial leadership capacity. The data gathered during the investigation were processed using the Categorical Principal Components Analysis and revealed the similari- ties and differences between the perceptions of the owner-managers and their employees on entrepreneurial leadership. In spite of not finding significant differences between what is es- tablished in the literature and among the perceptions of the groups under study, interesting nuances stand out that, if not identified and understood, could have a negative effect on the performance of SMEs. The results of the research demonstrated the importance of the approach of behaviour and perception in the study of entrepreneurial leadership.