The Effect Of Entrepreneurial Leadership On Employee Entrepreneurial Persistence Behavior

In recent years,under the influence of the State Council’s "mass entrepreneurship and innovation initiative" strategy and series of entrepreneurship support policies,China’s entrepreneurial practice has become more active than ever,and a large number of entrepreneurs are engaged in the tide of entrepreneurship.With a substantial increase in the number of business registrations every year,China has become one of the most active countries in entrepreneurial activity.However,due to the existence of many obstacles and difficulties such as fierce market competition and various uncertainties,the probpassion and proportion of startup failures are very high.How to improve the success rate of start-ups has become a problem that both the government and enterprises are very concerned about,and it has also become an important problem that needs to be solved urgently in enterprise organization research.Existing research believes that an important factor for entrepreneurial success is entrepreneurial persistence.The longer a start-up company persists,the higher its success rate is.In other words,the success of entrepreneurship cannot only depend on a few leaders,but also depends on the unswerving persistence of all employees who undertake the main business tasks of the enterprise.However,the research on entrepreneurial persistence behavior in the existing literature is still insufficient,especially the lack of in-depth understanding and theoretical insights into the formation and influencing factors of employees’ entrepreneurial persistence behavior.Curiosity about this question drove the author to carry out this research.The formation of employee entrepreneurial persistence is a complex process,which is the result of a combination of personal,organizational,environmental.and external factors.Leadership style,as a key situational factor,has a profound impact on employee traits and behaviors.Entrepreneurial leadership style is closely related to startups.This research,therefore,uses entrepreneurial leadership style as an independent variable and examine its effect on employee entrepreneurial persistence.Based on social learning theory,this research selected entrepreneurial ability as a mediating variable to investigate the underlying mechanism by which entrepreneurial leadership affects employee entrepreneurial persistence through shaping their entrepreneurial ability.Employee entrepreneurial passion was taken as a moderating variable to explore whether the effect of employee entrepreneurial ability on employee entrepreneurial persistence and that of entrepreneurial leadership on employee entrepreneurial persistence through the mediation of employee entrepreneurial ability would change under the influence of employee entrepreneurial passion.The research applied literature review,questionnaires,as well as field observation and interview to construct a research model and develop the research hypotheses.210 startup employees from Jinan,Qingdao,Nanjing,Hangzhou,Shanghai,and Suzhou were taken as the survey subjects,and the sample data were statistically verified with SPSS 22.0 and Mplus 7.4 software,The results show that,(1)entrepreneurial leadership and employee entrepreneurial ability both have a positive effect on employee entrepreneurial persistence;(2)employee entrepreneurial ability plays a mediating role between entrepreneurial leadership and employee entrepreneurial persistence,which reveals that entrepreneurial leadership can motivate employees to form entrepreneurial ability and then motivate their entrepreneurial persistence;(3)employee entrepreneurial passion plays a moderating role in the effect of employee entrepreneurial ability on employee entrepreneurial persistence and that of entrepreneurial leadership on employee entrepreneurial persistence through the mediation of employee entrepreneurial ability.In this way,the positive relationship between employee entrepreneurial ability and employee entrepreneurial persistence as well as the mediating effect of entrepreneurial leadership on employee entrepreneurial persistence through entrepreneurial ability are enhanced when employees have outstanding entrepreneurial passion.This research has three management implications.First,companies,especially startups,should stress the development of entrepreneurial leadership style and give full play to their leadership role in practice;thus,they can stimulate employee entrepreneurial ability,promote and maintain their entrepreneurial persistence,and gather the strength of all members,thereby adapting to the highly uncertain business environment and achieving success.Second.companies should stimulate and maintain attention to employee entrepreneurial ability through leadership role models,enhancing employee identification with the company,and shaping a positive and resilient culture.Third,companies should underline the overall improvement of employee entrepreneurial passion,consider the entrepreneurial passion of candidates during the recruitment process,identify and inventory the entrepreneurial passion of on-the-job employees,and carry out targeted training and give them more opportunities to sharpen their skills in the real world.