Visionary entrepreneurial leadership in the aircraft industry

Abstract

PurposeIn the early twenty‐first century organization scholars and managers face an economic outlook full of daunting challenges. With investors, workers, and other stakeholders distressed and hostile toward corporate executives and boards due to recent corporate scandals, the future for many industries and firms appears grim. In what ways can business history help corporate managers and new venture entrepreneurs overcome these leadership challenges? This paper seeks to uncover practices throughout the Boeing Company's management history that offer today's executives and board members numerous examples of industry vision and leadership.Design/methodology/approachVisionary leadership theory is used to help understand Boeing's actions. A theory of visionary entrepreneurial leadership is proposed based on Boeing's history. Four specific cases of aircraft design and development decisions and actions are presented as examples of executive and board directors' vision and leadership.FindingsBoeing has served as the aircraft industry's innovator and leader for over nine decades by designing and building path‐breaking airplanes when no other aircraft manufacturer would venture similar risks to their reputation and capital. Furthermore, Boeing executives and board directors have repeatedly made risky decisions that – if the prototype literately crashed and burned – would probably bankrupt the company. Management's vision was always on the next great airplane, never on individual image or personal wealth.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research directions are presented suggesting a focus on firm executives and boards of directors' decisions and how these decisions influence industry wide innovation and development.Originality/valueThe paper analyses the leadership attributes of Boeing executives over the last nine decades.

Understanding and Measuring Entrepreneurial Leadership Style

“… 1 Thornberry (); 2 Fernald, Solomon, and Tarabishy (); 3 Tierney and Farmer (); 4 Gupta, MacMillan, and Surie (); 5 Becherer, Mendenhall, and Eickhoff (); 6 Chen (); 7 D'Intino et al. (); 8 Mumford et al. (); 9 Cogliser and Brigham (); 10 McGrath and MacMillan ().…”

Entrepreneurial leadership in a developing economy: a skill-based analysis

“…This convergence has led to the development of a new paradigm known as "Entrepreneurial Leadership" (Kuratko, 2007). Across this emerging paradigm, the concept of Entrepreneurial Leadership has been explored across several contexts (Carpenter, 2012;Currie et al, 2008;D'Intino et al, 2008;Hansson and Mønsted, 2008;Harrison et al, 2016a;Kansikas et al, 2012;Leitch et al, 2009;Leitch et al, 2012;Mapunda, 2007;Santora et al, 1999). However, there has been little scholarship which has examined the concept from the perspective of a developing economy (Chen, 2007;Harrison et al, 2016a;Hejazi et al, 2012).…”

Envisioning innovation: Does visionary leadership engender team innovative performance through goal alignment?

“…In fact, theory on visionary leadership has repeatedly linked it to creativity and innovation (e.g. Conger, 1995;D'Intino et al, 2008;Merritt & DeGraff, 1996;Morden, 1997;Taylor, Cornelius, & Colvin, 2014;Westley & Mintzberg, 1989), and indeed some available evidence indirectly suggests that visionary leadership may play an important role in shaping the circumstances and boundary conditions required for successful team creativity and innovation. Firstly, Sarros, Cooper, and Santora (2011) found evidence that visionary leadership predicts employees' perception of support for innovation in their organizations, which, in turn, is an important predictor of team creativity and innovation (for overviews, see Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, & Herron, 1996;Hülsheger, Anderson, & Salgado, 2009).…”

“…Visionary leadership has been defined as the “communication of an image of a future for a collective with the intention to persuade others to contribute to the realization of that future” (Van Knippenberg & Stam, , p. 243). Conceptual analyses suggest that visionary leadership (D'Intino, Boyles, Neck, & Hall, ; Kirkpatrick, ), more than any other style of leadership, may be an important predictor of change and innovation (Van Knippenberg & Stam, ). The goal of the current study is to provide empirical evidence for the influence of visionary leadership on team creativity and innovation.…”