On the emergence of leadership in new ventures

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence and development of leadership within the context of new ventures. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was conducted to analyze in-depth the circumstances under which leadership is emerging and evolving in new ventures. In doing so, 55 founder-CEOs from Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland were interviewed. Findings The findings suggest that during the development from new ventures to early growth ventures the founder-CEOs and their organizations experience three major transitions. First, the founder-CEOs’ leadership behavior tends to emerge and evolve alongside firm development from being more transformational in new ventures to more transactional in early growth ventures. Second, the decisive employee selection criteria change over time, and the initially important person-founder fit turns into a person-organization fit. Third, a transition from a rather external perspective of the founder-CEOs in the new venture stage to a more internally oriented perspective in the early stages of growth was observed. Research limitations/implications Although the findings advance research on leadership in new ventures, the limitations concerning potential recall biases and subjectivism have to be kept in mind. Practical implications In practice, the findings imply that the emergence and development of leadership in new ventures should be seen as a dynamic process. Originality/value This paper is one of the first to study in-depth the emergence and development of leadership in the context of new ventures.