Innovative Entrepreneurship and Leadership Development

Dear Colleagues,

1. Introduction: Scientific Background and Importance of the Research Area

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to a forthcoming Special Issue entitled Innovative Entrepreneurship and Leadership Development. In today’s rapidly evolving global environment, marked by uncertainty, complexity and interconnected crises, the role of entrepreneurship and leadership in shaping sustainable, inclusive and innovative futures is more vital than ever. Emerging societal demands, technological disruptions, and global problems—such as climate change, inequality, and health security—are challenging traditional paradigms of innovation, enterprise, and leadership.

This Special Issue seeks to advance scholarly understanding of how entrepreneurial activity and leadership practices can be reimagined. It also seeks to explore the trends and shifts towards integrating technological advancements, sustainability, and associated innovative practices in entrepreneurship and leadership development, to address these multi-faceted challenges. We especially welcome novel theoretical contributions, empirical findings, and interdisciplinary perspectives that critically examine and extend existing models of innovation, inclusivity, and leadership for a changing world.

2. Aim of the Special Issue and Relevance to the Journal Scope

This Special Issue aims to showcase high-quality, original research that explores cutting-edge approaches in entrepreneurship and leadership development, with a strong focus on innovation, inclusivity, and responsiveness to societal challenges. We particularly encourage submissions that explore how entrepreneurial ventures and leadership strategies can foster readiness, resilience, and systems-level innovation.

The scope of this Special Issue aligns closely with the journal’s mission to disseminate impactful research at the intersection of management, entrepreneurship, leadership studies, and innovation. Submissions should offer theoretical rigour, methodological robustness, and practical relevance, and we especially welcome work that engages with global, cross-cultural or under-researched contexts.

The objective is to assemble a coherent collection of at least 10 peer-reviewed articles that may, subject to editorial discretion, also be published as a standalone edited volume.

3. Suggested Themes and Article Types for Submissions

In this Special Issue, we welcome original research articles, conceptual papers, case studies, and systematic reviews that contribute to the academic discourse on innovative entrepreneurship and leadership. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Inclusive and diverse approaches to entrepreneurship and leadership;
• Innovation readiness: individual, organisational, and ecosystem-level factors;
• Social innovation and enterprise responses to wicked problems;
• Entrepreneurial leadership in complex and uncertain environments;
• Entrepreneurial risks; risk-taking in social, financial and other capital;
• Leadership proficiencies and deficiencies in fostering innovation;
• Systems thinking and leadership in innovation ecosystems;
• Grassroots and community-led innovation;
• Inter-cultural perspectives on leadership development and innovation;
• Entrepreneurial leadership and organizational culture;
• Innovations in entrepreneurship education and leadership development;
• AI-enabled individual entrepreneurial and firm-wide intrapreneurial capabilities;
• Policy and institutional enablers of innovative entrepreneurship;
• Leadership and innovation in digital or post-digital contexts;
• Acquisition of innovation competencies via development opportunities.

We particularly encourage interdisciplinary submissions and those utilising novel methodological approaches or engaging with underrepresented voices and contexts.

Dr. Rouxelle De Villiers
Dr. Philip Dennett
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Administrative Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• entrepreneurial leadership
• social innovation
• sustainability development goals
• generative AI
• organisational culture
• intrapreneurship
• innovation readiness
• entrepreneurship education
• crowdsourcing
• knowledge co-creation