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Research questionnaire: entrepreneurship and leadership

Preprint · December 2019

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Brian Barnard
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In-Depth Interview Guide – (LOI: 45 minutes)
Definitions:

Leadership in entrepreneurship means to be both an entrepreneur and leader: to

practice leadership within entrepreneurship; to practice leadership, whilst
simultaneously practicing entrepreneurship – being an entrepreneur.

Leadership identity means the identity of the individual as a leader.

Semi-structured interview questions:

Leadership and entrepreneurship

1. What is required for you to realise you can be a leader?

2. How did and how do you learn about and develop your leadership? Who or
what was/are some of the key players or influences in this regard?
3. What does a leader look like in the entrepreneurship arena? What does it take
to be considered a competent leader in entrepreneurship? As a leader, what
does the entrepreneur do, and how or when is the entrepreneur a leader?
4. Is there any link between the leadership abilities of the entrepreneur and his
success? Can the leadership of the entrepreneur have a strong effect on his
success? Would entrepreneurs that are stronger leaders essentially be more
successful?
5. Does leadership skill and leadership identity limit new entrepreneurs and their
success? Do novice entrepreneurs succeed or fail due to leadership skill or
leadership identity?
6. How would you create strategic advantage or excellence through leadership,
particularly in entrepreneurship?
7. How would you measure the impact of leadership on entrepreneurship?
8. What kind or level of experience or knowledge do you require to be consid-
ered a competent leader in entrepreneurship? Can you be a leader in en-
trepreneurship with little a) experience or b) knowledge?
9. What drives your leadership approach or style, particularly within en-
trepreneurship? What factors shape it the most? For example, to what extent
does the market or market expectations, followers, groups, culture or society
shape your style?
10. To what extent is or should leadership in entrepreneurship be collaborative,
and to what extent is or should leadership in entrepreneurship be autonomous
or divergent – following your own mind, going your own direction, and doing
your own thing? Which do you prefer – a collaborative or autonomous/ diver-
gent approach?
11. As a leader, how do you connect with the meanings, values, abiding pur-
poses, and related unconscious aspects of people to instigate followers? How
do you surface these aspects and tap into it, in order to also steer and chan-
nel it?
12. Does it help the entrepreneur to be seen as a leader in social and entrepre-
neurial circles? How?
13. How much freedom does the leader have, and to what extent is he con-
strained by the situation, etc? How much power or influence does or can the
entrepreneur have as a leader, also in terms of industry or society? What re-
strains the power or influence of the entrepreneur as leader?
14. How does leadership impact or contribute to start-up – getting a new venture
operational?
15. What is the relationship between ethics and morals, and entrepreneurship?
Given the link between ethics or morals and leadership, how does ethics or
morals affect entrepreneurship? How does ethics or morals affect opportuni-
ties and opportunity recognition? With regards to opportunities, can ethics or
morals open doors for the entrepreneur?
16. As a leader, in deciding that it is best to follow your own mind and to set your
own direction, rather than to seek direction through collaboration – to be au-
tonomous - how do you actually find or set your direction? What do you con-
sider, and what shapes the process?
17. If the role of the leader is to define reality for others, how would you do this?
How do you define reality?
18. What must the leader thus have developed in order to be able to define reality
and set direction?
 19. What differentiates leaders in terms of how they define reality and set direc-
tion?
20. What are some of the values, morals, ethics and approaches you ascribe to
as leader within entrepreneurship?
21. How would you go about leading something you have very little experience of
or in?
22. How do you lead amidst complexity? What kind or nature of leadership is nec-
essary for complexity and complex systems, also to innovate complex sys-
tems? Given the prominence of complex systems, how would you use leader-
ship to unlock potential in complex systems?
23. What are some of the risks involved in leadership, particularly leadership in
entrepreneurship?
24. What are your struggles with entrepreneurship leadership? When it comes to
leadership within entrepreneurship, what are some of the things you find diffi-
cult or challenging, and what are some of the things you struggle with?
25. What are some of the challenges to developing leadership, particularly leader-
ship for or within entrepreneurship?
26. How do leaders typically fail in entrepreneurship – what are some of the
things they get or do wrong?
27. Who or what would you define as role-models or beacons of leadership in en-
trepreneurship, to look up to for guidance and inspiration?
28. How does culture impact leadership, particularly leadership for entrepreneur-
ship? In this regard, what are some of the dominant mind-sets, beliefs, struc-
tures and so forth that help and hinder leadership?

Leadership and innovation/ opportunity recognition

29. Can leadership lead to innovation or opportunity recognition? Does leadership

offer a unique contribution to innovation that is not otherwise possible?
 Can you innovate by introducing leadership, or introducing
unique or different leadership, to a situation or context?
 Can you learn or discover to innovate in a new setting, by learn-
ing to lead the setting first?
  As leader, how would you transform a stagnant organization or
industry?
 To what extent can you introduce and induce or incite innovation
as leader, by envisaging, contemplating or encouraging
change?
 Is it leadership that permits or helps the entrepreneur to interpret
a scenario or situation differently, and to recognize an opportu-
nity?
 Given the strong impact of perspective on creativity and innova-
tion, how does leadership differ from perspective?
30. As an entrepreneur, would you personally be able to innovate not on your
own, but through others? How would you manage or achieve this?
31. Are entrepreneurs truly visionary as they are professed to be? Is their vision
not a result of their innovative work? Does their vision come before innova-
tion, or does it follow from innovation?
32. How frequently do entrepreneurs innovate from a vision they have, as
opposed to innovating around an idea or problem?

33. Is leadership embedded in innovation? Can you differentiate innovation in

terms of the amount of leadership it carries or implies? And does innovation
require leadership – do you require leadership to innovate?

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