Do-It-Yourself laboratories (DIY labs) are autonomous community-based science research spaces that facilitate creative experiments independently in an unstructured location. The research on do-ityourself (DIY) laboratories is emerging and there remain various questions to answer about the structure, leadership style, innovation strategies and environmental and public safety policies of DIYs. Keeping in view various challenges of DIY labs, this study theoretically highlights the challenges of DIY labs and competencies required for DIY leaders in coping with challenges and driving innovation. Drawing on existing literature of entrepreneurial leadership competencies, this paper proposes a comprehensive entrepreneurial leadership competency model comprising of personal, functional, interpersonal, technological, ethical and environmental competencies. This study offers insights into the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and DIY innovation, thus laying a foundation for further research in this domain. The competency model proposed in this study helps individuals to understand and learn the capabilities of becoming more effective DIY entrepreneurial leaders and foster innovation and creativity in DIY labs.

Entrepreneurial leadership is an emerging paradigm of enquiry that has gained increased attention in research and practice in recent times. However, due to lack of conceptual clarity and theoretical foundations, various dimensions of entrepreneurial leadership competencies and their development specifically in group contexts lack theoretical and conceptual underpinning. This research seeks to narrow this gap by outlining a conceptual framework for team-based entrepreneurial leadership learning and development. According to the proposed model, developing entrepreneurial leadership skills is a dynamic and complex social process. Entrepreneurial leaders can gain knowledge and skills by participating in a variety of team-based learning activities, including peer observations, group-based experiential learning, self-regulated learning and team learning.