Does entrepreneurial leadership encourage innovation work behavior? The mediating role of creative self-efficacy and support for innovation

Purpose The crucial importance of innovation leadership for high technology small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) has been suggested in the literature. However, few studies empirically examined the impact of leadership style on innovation work behavior (IWB) of employees in the context of SMEs. Furthermore, our knowledge is limited about how leaders of high technology SMEs influence the IWB of their employees. The present study explores the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on IWB of employees and introduces creative self-efficacy and support for innovation as the mechanisms through which the leaders encourage their employees' IWB in information and communications technology (ICT) SMEs in Iran. Design/methodology/approach The sample was selected from high technology ICT SMEs using the simple random sampling method and included 175 CEOs and owner-managers of the businesses. We used validated questionnaires to test the hypothesized relationships between entrepreneurial leadership, IWB, creative self-efficacy and support for innovation. Findings The findings show that entrepreneurial leadership has a significant and positive impact on IWB of employees in ICT SMEs. Furthermore, employees’ creative self-efficacy and leaders’ support for innovation mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and IWB. Implications of the results and suggestions for developing IWB among the employees of high technology SMEs are suggested. Originality/value The study makes important contributions to both entrepreneurial leadership and the innovation behavior literature and theory development specifically in high technology SMEs in the transitioning economy of Iran. The findings also contribute to the existing empirical studies on how entrepreneurial leadership affects IWB of employees by examining the mediating role of creative self-efficacy and support for innovation and in the settings of ICT high technology SMEs.