Abstract

KANYANGALE, M. Exploring the strategic leadership of small and medium size entrepreneurs in Malawi. JCMAN [online]. 2017, vol.14, n.1, pp.482-508. ISSN 1815-7440.

Without strategic leadership of entrepreneurs, many entrepreneurial small and medium sized enterprises in Malawi would not survive and grow. This study explores what entrepreneurs as strategic leaders of their enterprises do to ensure business survival and growth in a competitive environment. Purposive sampling was used to identify 12 local strategic leaders from six entrepreneurial small and medium sized enterprises. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with local strategic leaders were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using open coding and constant comparison in order to induce characteristics and abilities. Entrepreneurs as strategic leaders display four interrelated individual characteristics: opportunity-seeking wisdom, building of appropriate social capital, entrepreneurial resilience, curiosity, and practice-led learning. They also have four other organisational abilities which allow them to: strategically iterate between the humanising and commodifying of organisational employees, align priorities and resources to create value, shape and exploit competitive advantage, and promote local entrepreneurial culture. Given these results, an integrative framework of local strategic leadership of entrepreneurs in entrepreneurial small and medium sized enterprises in Malawi, and also areas for future research, are highlighted.

Keywords : entrepreneurial small and medium enterprises; local strategic leadership; strategic leadership of entrepreneurs.

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