This article brings attention to a seemingly pervasive and underlying assumption in critical management education that transformative learning is a good thing. We explore this assumption through a series of narratives examining the ethics of educators overtly seeking to enable transformative learning with owner-managers in order to impact on their businesses. The focus on owner-managers is of significance in terms of transformative learning because of the centrality of the owner-manager to the delicate ecosystem that is the small and medium business. The article makes salient relational care in critical management education and the need for educators to engage in a moral dialogue regarding the relational impact of transformative learning in pedagogic designs. Such dialogue necessitates addressing in whose interest is transformative learning being sought, along with the orientation and framing of such learning.

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This paper explores the role of educators in supporting the development of entrepreneurial leadership learning though creating peer learning networks of owner-managers of small businesses. Using actor-network theory as a lens we think through the process of constructing and maintaining a peer learning network (conceived of as an actor-network) and frame entrepreneurial leadership learning as a network effect. Our paper is of significance to theory and practice in terms of understanding the dynamics, challenges and opportunities surrounding the construction and ongoing maintenance of networks and how to stimulate entrepreneurial leadership learning.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to tell the story of the evolution of knowledge exchange (KE) activity within a department in a university in the north west of England and to understand this activity through the lens of actor‐network theory.Design/methodology/approachApplying the sociology of translation to one qualitative interview shows how different actors were enrolled and mobilized into a KE actor‐network. The process of translation consists of four stages, problematisation, enrolment, interessement and mobilisation of allies which have been applied to the data to tell the story of the KE actor‐network. This is a cross‐disciplinary approach using a theoretical framework from sociology and applying it to a management/organizational context.FindingsThis framework brings fresh ways of looking at the importance of KE networks within universities. Although limited to one interview, the methodology allows for an in‐depth reading of the data and shows how resilient and flexible this actor‐network is to withstand and respond appropriately to shifts in policy and subsequent provisions for small‐ and medium‐sized enterprise business support.Originality/valueBuilding from one case, the paper concludes that this account adds to an historical understanding of how universities become involved with KE activities. The inclusion of non‐human actors allows for a deeper understanding of the actor‐network and shows the importance of actors such as White Papers, pots of funding and physical buildings to the role of KE within higher education.

INTRODUCTIONThis chapter explores entrepreneurial leadership learning: what it is, and how it is different to leadership learning within employed contexts. We use communities of practice (CoP) theory as a lens for understanding how owner-managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) learn entrepreneurial leadership. Drawing upon an empirical case study of an SME leadership development programme and an autoethnographic account of one of the owner-managers (Barnes et al., 2015), we explore how entrepreneurial leadership learning becomes evident in the entrepreneurial context and how it can be developed within a CoP. Developing this further we use the notions of human, social and institutional capitals to illustrate how such learning becomes manifest: the connect between individual skills, knowledge and attitudes within social relationships supported through an organised structure with guiding informal rules of collective engagement.The organisation of the chapter is as follows. First, we provide an overview of debates and research evidence to delineate the nature of entrepreneurial leadership learning. Recent discussions in the field of leadership have begun to assert an ontological orientation towards relational dynamics rather than essentialist qualities of individuals; that is an emphasis on relational practices and identities formed within specific contexts of both leaders and followers (DeRue and Ashford, 2010). The chapter next explores formative leadership learning and the differences in the employed and the SME and entrepreneurial contexts. We continue looking at the SME context using the lens of CoP theory to examine how a leadership programme helps owner-managers of SMEs develop their entrepreneurial leadership capabilities. We highlight a particular case through an autoethnographic account of an owner-manager which examines the lived experience of entrepreneurial leadership learning. The account is used to show how Leitch et al.'s (2013) three capitals -human, social and institutional -provide an in-depth rich sense of verisimilitude of the experience of all three dimensions. We conclude the chapter by exploring opportunities for the development of research into entrepreneurial leadership learning.