sustainability
Systematic Review
Entrepreneurial Leadership and Sustainable
Development—A Systematic Literature Review
Alexandrina Maria Pauceanu
1,
* , Nada Rabie
2
, Ayman Moustafa
3
and Daniel Constantin Jiroveanu
4
Citation: Pauceanu, A.M.; Rabie, N.;
Moustafa, A.; Jiroveanu, D.C.
Entrepreneurial Leadership and
Sustainable Development—A
Systematic Literature Review.
Sustainability 2021, 13, 11695.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111695
Academic Editor: Virginia Bodolica
Received: 3 August 2021
Accepted: 10 October 2021
Published: 22 October 2021
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1
Doctoral Business School, Geneva Business School, 08002 Barcelona, Spain
2
College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zayed University, Dubai 4783, United Arab Emirates;
nada.rabie@zu.ac.ae
3
Department of Business Administration, British University in Dubai, Dubai 345015, United Arab Emirates;
aaaymanmoustafa@gmail.com
4
Department of Management, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010371 Bucharest, Romania;
daniel.jiroveanu@man.ase.ro
* Correspondence: apauceanu@gbsge.com
Abstract: The main aim of this study was to clarify the current literary inconsistencies regarding
the characteristics of entrepreneurial leadership and its impact on sustainability. Additionally,
another aim was to establish the framework of entrepreneurial leadership and to highlight the
main gaps in the entrepreneurial leadership literature. The entrepreneurial leadership literature
started to develop recently as a new leadership style that is required to fulfill the current business
changes in the fourth industrial revolution. The researchers conducted a narrative literature review
to assess the status of entrepreneurial leadership in academia, literature gaps, and the impact
of entrepreneurial leadership on the sustainability performance of organizations. Furthermore,
the researchers main aim was to investigate the following research question: is entrepreneurial
leadership a fixed or a multidimensional concept that differs based on industry, context, and firm size?
Regarding the answer to this question, the current study found that entrepreneurial leadership is a
multidimensional concept as it is reflected in different perspectives, which indicates the inconsistency
of the characteristics of entrepreneurial leadership claimed in the literature. Research limitations—the
current study focused on assessing the literature review status of entrepreneurial leadership. Based
on that, this study’s limitation is represented in not focusing on testing entrepreneurial leadership’s
impact on sustainability either quantitatively or qualitatively. On the contrary, it contributed by
analyzing the status of the entrepreneurial leadership literature. Future studies need to further assess
this relationship between both concepts and reach an agreement about the common characteristics of
entrepreneurial leadership. Originality/value—the current study contributes to the entrepreneurial
leadership literature as it highlighted the existing gaps and the inconsistency in the literature.
Additionally, it contributed theoretically by connecting entrepreneurial leadership to the existing
literature. Furthermore, empirically, it highlighted the contribution of entrepreneurial leadership by
emphasizing the impact of it on organizational sustainable development performance. This study
represents a call for scholars to focus more on entrepreneurial leadership given its contribution to
organizational performance.
Keywords: entrepreneurial leadership; entrepreneurship; leadership; sustainability
1. Introduction
The world is transforming rapidly, and everything starting from products, technolo-
gies, and economies are developing. This fast rapid pace economic development requires
firms to develop and evolve to cope with the fast-growing economy. Entrepreneurial
leadership is not a luxury for organizations, and it is the new trend in academia. In the
meantime, business managers who have leadership traits or entrepreneurship traits only
Sustainability 2021, 13, 11695. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111695 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability