Leadership and organisational performance in Malaysian SMEs: The mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation

Whether and to what extent entrepreneurs¿ leadership could influence entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and organisational performance was a major question of the current study. More specifically, the study tested a casual modelling, examining the various relationships among leadership behaviours, EO and organisational performance in Malaysian SMEs. Based on a response of 397 Malaysian entrepreneurs and a test of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), the results revealed that transformational and transactional leadership had different impact on the organisational performance variables. In addition, EO seemed to mediate the relationship between the leadership behaviours and one of the organisational performance variables (Growth). Implication was also discussed.