Entrepreneurial Leadership and Context in Chinese Firms: A Tale of Two Chinese Private Enterprises

Abstract

We focus on entrepreneurial leadership styles and context in Chinese firms. Drawing on exploratory case study evidence from two Chinese high-tech private enterprises, we find that the interaction of multilevel factors (i.e. philosophical traditions and cultural values, organisational, personal and transitional factors) forms a complex and dynamic context of entrepreneurial leadership in Chinese firms. Benevolent leadership rooted in Confucianism is an overarching leadership style, whilst transactional and transformational leadership styles (which find parallel with Legalism and Daoism) are contingent upon a range of factors, especially the entrepreneurial leader's personal background and the firm's strategic focus and developmental stage.