Antecedents of ambidextrous leadership in entrepreneurship: the role of emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial leadership styles

Oluwafemi, TB, Ogundana, OM ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0121-7231, Dana, L-P and Hasnaoui, J, 2025. Antecedents of ambidextrous leadership in entrepreneurship: the role of emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial leadership styles. Strategic Change. ISSN 1086-1718

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Abstract

Ambidextrous leadership (AL) is a game-changer for entrepreneurial success, empowering leaders to balance exploration and exploitation expertly—two powerful forces that drive innovation and business growth. Yet, despite its evident importance, research into the factors that shape AL in entrepreneurial settings remains surprisingly sparse. This study fills this gap by exploring how emotional intelligence, adaptive and flexible leadership, transformational leadership, and transactional leadership influence AL behaviours among entrepreneurial leaders. Drawing on data collected via structured questionnaires from entrepreneurs who lead high-tech businesses in the UK, this research reveals how each leadership dimension contributes to AL. The results, based on multiple linear regression analysis, indicate that while all four leadership styles influence AL, they do so in distinct ways. Transformational and transactional leadership help shape a leader's opening and closing behaviours, while adaptive or flexible leadership determines the strategic timing for their deployment. Additionally, emotional intelligence fosters the emotional climate that helps leaders navigate the tensions inherent in leading innovation. The study demonstrates that emotional intelligence and adaptive/flexible leadership are individual capabilities that empower leaders to act ambidextrously. In contrast, transformational and transactional leadership are behavioural modes that enable leaders to lead ambidextrously. This study not only enriches entrepreneurial leadership theory but also provides actionable insights for cultivating the leadership skills necessary to build ambidextrous capacity at the individual level, thereby fuelling innovation and driving scalable success in entrepreneurial ventures.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Strategic Change
Creators:	Oluwafemi, T.B., Ogundana, O.M., Dana, L.-P. and Hasnaoui, J.
Publisher:	Wiley
Date:	21 July 2025
ISSN:	1086-1718
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1002/jsc.70001 DOI 2468728 Other
Rights:	This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Oluwafemi, T. B., Ogundana, O. M., Dana, L.-P., & Hasnaoui, J. (2025). Antecedents of ambidextrous leadership in entrepreneurship: the role of emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial leadership styles. Strategic Change, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.70001. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	23 Jul 2025 09:52
Last Modified:	23 Jul 2025 09:56
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53992

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