A mission of service: social entrepreneur as a servant leader
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research
ISSN: 1355-2554
Article publication date: 26 June 2017
Issue publication date: 11 May 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to establish a conceptual link between the research domains of social entrepreneurship and servant leadership by exploring the proposition that social entrepreneurs may have specific leadership attributes that allow classifying them as servant leaders.
Design/methodology/approach
Five servant leadership attributes were identified based on the literature review: altruism, humility, integrity, trust in others and empathy. In an exploratory study, these attributes were examined in a sample of 78 Russian entrepreneurs.
Findings
Survey results indicate that social entrepreneurs indeed differ from traditional ones in four of the perceived servant leadership attributes: altruism, integrity, trust in others and empathy. However, no differences in humility between social and traditional entrepreneurs were found.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of this study are the sample size and the sampling technique used (targeted and snowball sampling). Another limitation is the nature of the instrument used: servant leadership attributes were measured through a self-assessment questionnaire, making it susceptible to a social desirability bias. The study contributes toward setting a future research agenda for the further studies of both social entrepreneurship and servant leadership.
Originality/value
This paper introduces a conceptual connection between social entrepreneurship and servant leadership. No such study had been reported prior to this research.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “Challenging tensions and contradictions: critical, theoretical and empirical perspectives on social enterprise”, guest edited by Michael Bull, Rory Ridley-Duff, Geoffrey Whittam and Susan Baines.
Citation
Petrovskaya, I. and Mirakyan, A. (2018), "A mission of service: social entrepreneur as a servant leader", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 755-767. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-02-2016-0057
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited