Identifying the Role of the Entrepreneurial Leader in Times of Crisis

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic brought significant changes and challenges to the entrepreneurial leaders of small businesses across the world.  Notwithstanding the significant body of research in crisis leadership, there is little known about the behaviours of small firm entrepreneurial leaders.  Adopting a role identity perspective, the empirical data from this international qualitative study offers a first-hand and real-time account of entrepreneurial leader role-related behaviours in crisis.  Drawing upon the evidence from 30 small business entrepreneurs and 4 business support organisations, analysis of the data confirmed the centrality and breadth of responsibility held by the entrepreneurial leaders of small firms, and identified three multifaceted and interchangeable roles adopted by them in the crisis — the CEO leader, the Learner leader, and the Nurturer leader.