Leading through uncertainty: entrepreneurial leadership and co-creation of new opportunities

Purpose While previous research has highlighted the role of entrepreneurs in leading individual employees' behaviour in small businesses, our understanding of how they influence opportunity development in uncertain times remains limited. This study investigates how entrepreneurs in small businesses navigate uncertainty and create new opportunities. Design/methodology/approach An interpretive qualitative method was employed to understand how entrepreneurs enable their teams to overcome multiple uncertainties in the relatively unexplored business environment of Iran. The data were driven from 35 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs/small business owner-managers. Findings The results of this study indicate that entrepreneurial leadership enables small businesses to overcome uncertainties and crises and create new opportunities by facilitating collective problem-solving and opportunity development. Entrepreneurial leadership fosters effectual co-creation through communicating a compelling vision, empowering employees, stimulating collective cognition, and collective action. Practical implications Entrepreneurs and managers of small businesses can use the findings of this study to rethink their approaches to environmental uncertainty by adopting entrepreneurial leadership practices that enable collective cognition and action. By fostering a compelling vision, empowering team-level decision-making, and creating a supportive environment, entrepreneurial leadership enables small firms to co-create opportunities and remain resilient during crises. Originality/value This study extends the theory of entrepreneurial leadership by illustrating how it facilitates opportunity co-creation through collective cognition and action in uncertain environments. It offers a contextualised understanding of entrepreneurial leadership as an empowering approach to enhancing small business resilience.