/ Journals / Foreign Economics & Management
Foreign Economics & Management
LiZengquan, Editor-in-Chief
ZhengChunrong, Vice Executive Editor-in-Chief
YinHuifang HeXiaogang LiuJianguo, Vice Editor-in-Chief
Editorial Board  |  Read more about this journal »
AboutAll IssuesAuthors GuidePeer ReviewSubscribeContact Us
Home  >  All Issues  >  2020  >  No.09  >  Article Details
The Cross-level Effect of Entrepreneurial Leadership on Team Creativity
Lin Qin  , Yi Lingfeng
Full Article  |  PDF Article(763.2 KB)
Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 42, Issue 09, pp. 107 - 120 (2020)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.20200519.301
First published at:Sep 03, 2020
Summary
References
Summary

In order to cope with the background of entrepreneurship and innovation and the highly uncertain environment, enterprises need to implement entrepreneurial leadership, guide employees to change, innovate and develop entrepreneurial opportunities to create strategic value and achieve sustainable development. The team is the basic unit of an enterprise, generating synergies through in-depth cooperation among team members. As an effective leadership in this context, how entrepreneurial leadership enhances team creativity is crucial to the innovation and development of enterprises. The research on the influence of entrepreneurial leadership on team creativity pays little attention to the conduction of the team’s external behavior process, and team creativity is the result of the complex team process. The flattening and flexibility of the organization make top managers carry out activities directly in the form of team. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify how entrepreneurial leadership at the organizational level affects the behavior process of the team, and then strengthen team creativity.

Based on the process-oriented theory of knowledge emergence in teams, this paper explores the influence mechanism and boundary condition of entrepreneurial leadership on team creativity. Through the cross-level analysis of the longitudinal matching data between the senior executives and the R&D teams in high-tech enterprises, the results show that:（1）Entrepreneurial leadership at the organizational level has a positive impact on team creativity.（2）Entrepreneurial leadership can stimulate team boundary spanning and then improve team creativity.（3）Team cognitive diversity can enhance the promotion effect of team boundary spanning on team creativity.（4）The higher the team cognitive diversity, the stronger the positive influence of entrepreneurial leadership on team creativity through team boundary spanning.

This research has the following theoretical contributions: Firstly, it expands the research perspective of the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and team creativity from the perspective of team behavior process. Secondly, it enriches the theoretical basis of the research on the impact of entrepreneurial leadership on team creativity. Finally, it highlights the cross-level effect of entrepreneurial leadership on team effectiveness. In addition, this research provides several practical implications: Firstly, top managers must respond to the changes of environment and the needs of enterprises with the entrepreneurial leadership model. Secondly, it is necessary for enterprise executives to mobilize various teams to break the rigid knowledge system and take the initiative to acquire valuable knowledge from the outside for knowledge updating, integration and reorganization, and form creative output. Thirdly, top managers should improve the diversification management of the team.

Keywords
entrepreneurial leadership; team creativity; team boundary spanning; team cognitive diversity; cross-level effect
[1] Li N, Ge B. The impacts of cognitive diversity of entrepreneurial team on team performance: A moderated double-mediation model[J]. Business Management Journal, 2018, 40(12): 123-137.
[2] Liu W, Fang Y, Shi J, et al. The impact of supervisor’s creativity expectation on team creativity[J]. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 2018, 50(6): 667-677.
[3] Wang H, Liu B. A literature review of entrepreneurial leadership and prospects[J]. Foreign Economics & Management, 2018, 40(4): 84-95
[4] Xue H. Foreign research review and prospect of team boundary spanning behavior[J]. Foreign Economics & Management, 2010, 32(9): 10-15.
[5] Amabile T M. The social psychology of creativity: A componential conceptualization[J]. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1983, 45(2): 357-376.
[6] Ancona D G, Caldwell D F. Bridging the boundary: External activity and performance in organizational teams[J]. Administrative Science Quarterly, 1992, 37(4): 634-665.
[7] Bagheri A. The impact of entrepreneurial leadership on innovation work behavior and opportunity recognition in high-technology SMEs[J]. The Journal of High Technology Management Research, 2017, 28(2): 159-166.
[8] Bagheri A, Pihie Z A L. Entrepreneurial leadership: Towards a model for learning and development[J]. Human Resource Development International, 2011, 14(4): 447-463.
[9] Cai W J, Lysova E I, Khapova S N, et al. Does entrepreneurial leadership foster creativity among employees and teams? The mediating role of creative efficacy beliefs[J]. Journal of Business and Psychology, 2019, 34(2): 203-217.
[10] Chen M H. Entrepreneurial leadership and new ventures: Creativity in entrepreneurial teams[J]. Creativity and Innovation Management, 2007, 16(3): 239-249.
[11] Chen Z X, Tsui A S, Farh J L. Loyalty to supervisor vs. organizational commitment: Relationships to employee performance in China[J]. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 2002, 75(3): 339-356.
[12] Choi J N. External activities and team effectiveness: Review and theoretical development[J]. Small Group Research, 2002, 33(2): 181-208.
[13] Covin J G, Slevin D P. The entrepreneurial imperatives of strategic leadership[A]. Hitt M A, Ireland R D, Camp S M, et al. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset[C]. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002.
[14] Faraj S, Yan A M. Boundary work in knowledge teams[J]. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2009, 94(3): 604-617.
[15] Farh J L, Lee C, Farh C I. Task conflict and team creativity: A question of how much and when[J]. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2010, 95(6): 1173-1180.
[16] Gibson C B, Dibble R. Excess may do harm: Investigating the effect of team external environment on external activities in teams[J]. Organization Science, 2013, 24(3): 697-715.
[17] Grand J A, Braun M T, Kuljanin G, et al. The dynamics of team cognition: A process-oriented theory of knowledge emergence in teams[J]. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2016, 101(10): 1353-1385.
[18] Gupta V, MacMillan I C, Surie G. Entrepreneurial leadership: Developing and measuring a cross-cultural construct[J]. Journal of Business Venturing, 2004, 19(2): 241-260.
[19] Hu L D, Park J H, Wu C D, et al. Entrepreneurial leadership and innovativeness: The mediating role of team psychological safety[J]. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2014, (1): 12470.
[20] Huang S L, Ding D H, Chen Z. Entrepreneurial leadership and performance in Chinese new ventures: A moderated mediation model of exploratory innovation, exploitative innovation and environmental dynamism[J]. Creativity and Innovation Management, 2014, 23(4): 453-471.
[21] Jaussi K S, Dionne S D. Leading for creativity: The role of unconventional leader behavior[J]. The Leadership Quarterly, 2003, 14(4-5): 475-498.
[22] Jia L D, Shaw J D, Tsui A S, et al. A social-structural perspective on employee-organization relationships and team creativity[J]. Academy of Management Journal, 2014, 57(3): 869-891.
[23] Joshi A, Roh H. The role of context in work team diversity research: A meta-analytic review[J]. Academy of Management Journal, 2009, 52(3): 599-627.
[24] Kearney E, Gebert D. Managing diversity and enhancing team outcomes: The promise of transformational leadership[J]. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2009, 94(1): 77-89.
[25] Kuratko D F. Entrepreneurial leadership in the 21st century: Guest editor’s perspective[J]. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 2007, 13(4): 1-11.
[26] Malhotra A, Majchrzak A. Enabling knowledge creation in far-flung teams: Best practices for IT support and knowledge sharing[J]. Journal of Knowledge Management, 2004, 8(4): 75-88.
[27] Marrone J A. Team boundary spanning: A multilevel review of past research and proposals for the future[J]. Journal of Management, 2010, 36(4): 911-940.
[28] Marrone J A, Tesluk P E, Carson J B. A multilevel investigation of antecedents and consequences of team member boundary-spanning behavior[J]. Academy of Management Journal, 2007, 50(6): 1423-1439.
[29] Mathieu J, Maynard M T, Rapp T, et al. Team effectiveness 1997-2007: A review of recent advancements and a glimpse into the future[J]. Journal of Management, 2008, 34(3): 410-476.
[30] Mello A L, Rentsch J R. Cognitive diversity in teams: A multidisciplinary review[J]. Small Group Research, 2015, 46(6): 623-658.
[31] Olutade M, Liefooghe A, Olakunle A O. Influence of entrepreneurial leadership skills on employees’ motivation and job satisfaction: A leader member exchange (LMX) approach[J]. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2015, 5(9): 188-214.
[32] Park J, Kim S. The differentiating effects of workforce aging on exploitative and exploratory innovation: The moderating role of workforce diversity[J]. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 2015, 32(2): 481-503.
[33] Perry-Smith J E, Shalley C E. The social side of creativity: A static and dynamic social network perspective[J]. The Academy of Management Review, 2003, 28(1): 89-106.
[34] Preacher K J, Zyphur M J, Zhang Z. A general multilevel SEM framework for assessing multilevel mediation[J]. Psychological Methods, 2010, 15(3): 209-233.
[35] Prieto L C. Proactive personality and entrepreneurial leadership: Exploring the moderating role of organizational identification and political skill[J]. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, 2010, 16(2): 107-121.
[36] Rego A, Cunha M P E, Simpson A V. The perceived impact of leaders’ humility on team effectiveness: An empirical study[J]. Journal of Business Ethics, 2018, 148(1): 205-218.
[37] Renko M, El Tarabishy A, Carsrud A L, et al. Understanding and measuring entrepreneurial leadership style[J]. Journal of Small Business Management, 2015, 53(1): 54-74.
[38] Sani A, Ekowati V M, Wekke I S, et al. Respective contribution of entrepreneurial leadership through organizational citizenship behaviour in creating employee’s performance[J]. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, 2018, 24(4): 1-11.
[39] Shin S J, Kim T Y, Lee J Y, et al. Cognitive team diversity and individual team member creativity: A cross-level interaction[J]. Academy of Management Journal, 2012, 55(1): 197-212.
[40] Shin S J, Zhou J. When is educational specialization heterogeneity related to creativity in research and development teams? Transformational leadership as a moderator[J]. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2007, 92(6): 1709-1721.
[41] Solongo E, Lee S K, Kang E G, et al. A study on the influence of leader supervisory style to creativity and job involvement in the age of convergence[J]. Journal of Digital Convergence, 2015, 13(9): 149-159.
[42] Supartha W G, Saraswaty A N. The impact of entrepreneurial leadership on organizational performance: A case of credit cooperatives in Bali Indonesia[J]. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 2019, 14(1): 233-241.
[43] Surie G, Ashley A. Integrating pragmatism and ethics in entrepreneurial leadership for sustainable value creation[J]. Journal of Business Ethics, 2008, 81(1): 235-246.
[44] Tarabishy A, Solomon G, Fernald L W, et al. The entrepreneurial leader’s impact on the organization’s performance in dynamic markets[J]. The Journal of Private Equity, 2005, 8(4): 20-29.
[45] Tortoriello M, Krackhardt D. Activating cross-boundary knowledge: The role of Simmelian ties in the generation of innovations[J]. Academy of Management Journal, 2010, 53(1): 167-181.
[46] Van der Vegt G S, Janssen O. Joint impact of interdependence and group diversity on innovation[J]. Journal of Management, 2003, 29(5): 729-751.
[47] Wang X H, Kim T Y, Lee D R. Cognitive diversity and team creativity: Effects of team intrinsic motivation and transformational leadership[J]. Journal of Business Research, 2016, 69(9): 3231-3239.
[48] Zaech S, Baldegger U. Leadership in start-ups[J]. International Small Business Journal, 2017, 35(3): 157-177.
Cite this article
Lin Qin, Yi Lingfeng. The Cross-level Effect of Entrepreneurial Leadership on Team Creativity[J]. Foreign Economics & Management, 2020, 42(9): 107-120. 
Export Citations as: For   
Previous: The Influence Mechanism of Regulatory Focuses on Employees’ Constructive Deviance
Next: Visual Elements in Brand Aesthetics: A Review and Prospects
ISSUE COVER
2020, Issue 09
RELATED ARTICLES
Entrepreneurial Leadership, Organizational Resilience and New Venture Performance
Zhao Sijia, Yi Lingfeng, Lian Yanling
The Synergy Mechanism of Temporal Leadership and Employees’ Synchronization in Innovation Teams
Ma Jun, Yan Jiani
Can the “Good Man” be a Good Team Leader? A Research on the Relationship between Leaders’ Agreeableness and Team Creativity
Li Zhaomin, Zhao Shuming
Managerial Coaching, Ambidextrous Learning, and Team Creativity: The Moderating Role of Team Learning Goal Orientation
Zhao Hongdan, Liu Weiwei
A Literature Review of Entrepreneurial Leadership and Prospects
Wang Hongyu, Liu Bolong
Journals  |   Articles  |   Submission  |   Subscribe  |   Contact us
Copyright 2024 © Department of Academic Journals, SUFE    No. 321 Guoding Rd, Shanghai, China    P.O: 200433