The impact of leadership style on SME performance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14267/VEZTUD.2025.10.03Keywords:
SME, leadership style, performance, systematic literature review, empirical researchAbstract
Leadership style is one of the most critical areas of enterprise management. Therefore, the author aims to examine the international literature from 2015 to 2022 and identify the most dominant leadership styles, along with empirical research to prospect their effects on SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) performance. The author conducted a systematic literature review with data from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, then empirical research involving Hungarian SMEs from the EMIS database. The study addresses two main research questions regarding the most dominant leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire) and their effects on performance. The limitations of the research are the publication databases used, language barriers, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These could expand the directions of research.
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