Leaders' sustainability competences and small and medium‐sized enterprises outcomes: The role of social entrepreneurial orientation

The market for socially conscious products and services has grown exponentially in the last years. Consequently, adding social value is among the great challenges that companies have to face nowadays. In view of this, companies need leaders with a specific skill set that prepares them to act and com...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Álvarez-García, José, Hormiga Pérez, Esther, Sarango Lalangui, Paul Oswaldo, Del Río-Rama, María de la Cruz
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/199081
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/199081
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Lideratge
Petita i mitjana empresa
Desenvolupament sostenible
Desenvolupament social
Leadership
Small business
Sustainable development
Societal growth
Descripción
Sumario:The market for socially conscious products and services has grown exponentially in the last years. Consequently, adding social value is among the great challenges that companies have to face nowadays. In view of this, companies need leaders with a specific skill set that prepares them to act and compete in this new environment. This is especially true for small and medium‐size enterprises (SMEs), which rely even more on their leaders' competences. The aim of this article is to analyse the influence of leaders' sustainability competences on SMEs social entrepreneurial orientation, as well as the influence of this strategy on the firm's outcomes. Results show that sustainability competences positively affect social entrepreneurial orientation; specifically, the social risk-taking and proactivity competence has a positive influence on the economic and social performance of SMEs, and notably on their green innovation performance. These results highlight the key role that leaders' competences have in SMEs social orientation and thus, the importance of training in competences for sustainable development.