Connections between leadership features and attitudes towards innovativeness: a research on small and medium-sized business owners

Abstract

The issue of leadership, with its roots from ancient times, is perhaps one of the most popular subjects in scientific terms as well as in daily life. Accordingly, this popularity has led to the creation of many leadership paradigms and types. A contemporary approach points out that innovativeness is one of the key elements in the modern business world and is also connected with leadership. This mentioned connection, however, has somehow a vague point: literature reveals two related claims. While some scholars contend that innovativeness should be a component of nearly all leadership types; some emphasize that a distinct type of leadership, innovation leadership, should primarily be taken into consideration. In this sense, this study aims to shed light upon leadership-innovativeness connection in the Turkish context by focusing on the entrepreneur – the business owner oneself. In accordance with this aim, data from small and medium-sized business owners in İstanbul Tuzla Organized Industrial Zone are collected and evaluated. A general result achieved is that business owners are keen on innovativeness and their perceptions of their own leadership features have partial connections with their innovativeness inclination.