Entrepreneurial leadership: a missing link between perceived organizational support and organizational performance

Purpose – The current research is aimed at exploring entrepreneurial leadership (EL) as a mediator in perceived organizational support (POS) and organizational performance (OP) relationship. Furthermore, it also examined the impact of POS and entrepreneurial leadership on the performance of an organization.
Design/methodology/approach – A purposively selected sample of 216 respondents from the SME sector of Oman was chosen for the study.
Findings – The results revealed that POS and entrepreneurial leadership positively and significantly have an effect on organizational performance. Moreover, the hypothesized role of entrepreneurial leadership as a mediator between POS and OP relationship was also supported.
Research limitations/implications – In spite of the novelty of the research, it was limited due to a few reasons. First, the research design is cross-sectional. Second, the research only focused SME sector. This research only focused on entrepreneurial leadership as a mediator, whereas, other mediators could have been explored as well.
Originality/value – The research on POS and organizational performance relationship is still in its exploration stage. Past research indicate that POS has an effect on different outcomes within an organization, including its performance. However, still, the research on the entrepreneurial leadership process is quite scarce. The current research will explore it in the context of Oman, where there is a dire need to establish SME sector performance. The unique combination between POS, entrepreneurial leadership and performance in the SME sector of Oman marks the novelty of the current research. This study contributes to the SME’s literature and it is among the pioneer studies exploring the mediating role of entrepreneurial leadership in the relationship between POS and OP.