Chapter 2: The concept and evolution of entrepreneurial leadership: a bibliometric analysis
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The past decade has seen an increase in scholarly interest and expansion of literature on the topic of entrepreneurial leadership. However, this field of research lacks definitional clarity and appropriate tools to assess its characteristics. This chapter presents a review of research published in this field from 2003 to 2014, with the goal of clarifying the state of knowledge in the area. It also aims to reveal the evolution of entrepreneurial leadership. A content analysis of the existing body of literature in 21 peer-reviewed journal articles focused on entrepreneurial leadership and was conducted using the analytical tool Leximancer. This analysis reveals important changes in the evolution of research in entrepreneurial leadership. Early articles often separated the terms ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘leadership’ when describing the construct of entrepreneurial leadership. More recent articles have merged the terms into ‘entrepreneurial leadership’. In addition, a keyword analysis displayed the relevance of leadership styles, traits, characteristics and behaviors in both periods 2003_2009 and 2012_2014. Moreover, this study reveals that a number of journals had published articles on the topic of ‘entrepreneurial leadership’. Only three journals were represented more than once. Variation also applies to the authors who published in this research domain; only a few authors appeared with high frequency. Overall, the analysis suggests an increased cross-fertilization and convergence between the fields of entrepreneurship and leadership.

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