Person-Entrepreneurial Leadership Fitness Instrument (PELFI): Development and Validation of a Theoretical Process-Based Measure.

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory study was to develop and validate the Person- Entrepreneurial Leadership Fitness Instrument (PELFI). This study took an important step toward the measurement, refinement, and standardization of entrepreneurial leadership theory utilizing a cross-culturally validated construct of entrepreneurial leadership (Gupta, MacMillan, & Surie, 2004) derived from the Global Leadership Organizational Behavior Effectiveness research program (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004) and the entrepreneurial new venture process (Mueller & Goic, 2003). Well-established scientific scale development approaches based on the doctrine of DeVellis (2012) have used methods comprised of two stages: item development and scale identification and validation. A Delphi method study utilized a panel of 46 subject matter experts to evaluate the item pool that provided mixed-method feedback. A sample of 273 business owners and entrepreneurs participated in this study. Factor extraction by way of principle component analysis using oblique rotation through direct oblimin was conducted to explore the underlying structure for sources of variability with the first analysis resulting in the extraction of four components with eigenvalues greater than 1.0 explaining 61.29% of the variance--the first accounted for 44.80% of the variance, the second accounted for 7.45% of the variance, the third accounted for 4.61% of the variance, and the fourth accounted for 4.43% of the variance. Reliability analysis resulted in a 21-item, three-factor solution comprised of leader- follower orientation (α = .928), performance orientation (α = .839), and entrepreneurial savvy (α = .827). The third factor of venture scope (α = .727) contained two items for this scale, thus making it unusable. Convergent validity was determined through comparison to the Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation (Bolton & Lane, 2012) and Satisfaction with Business (Powell & Eddleston, 2008) measures. Entrepreneurial leaders are placed in an environmental situation where certain personal individual difference factors are instrumental to the entrepreneurial leadership state of mind in which the greater the person's fitness for entrepreneurial leadership, the higher the likelihood of entrepreneurial leadership success.