| Pub. Date | : June, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of Entrepreneurship Development |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJED20620 |
| Author Name | : Muziwandile Sibusiso Sibeko and Brian Barnard |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Management Journals |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 42 |
This study investigates how entrepreneurs and visionary leaders formulate a vision, how they think about vision, how visions arise and what should constitute a sound vision. The literature emphasizes the importance of visions or visioning as a core component of entrepreneurship, leadership, and strategy, and it showed a strong link between vision(ing) and innovation. The literature also suggests that there are several attributes of visions, as well as many vision types that may potentially segment the entrepreneurs’ visions. A qualitative approach was used for this study and interviews were carried out with experienced entrepreneurs. The study found that entrepreneurs generally have visions regarding their business ventures and opportunities. Most visions are structured, even though there are certain instances where visions are unstructured and spontaneous. Entrepreneurs regard the visioning process as crucial for their success and the consensus among the entrepreneurs interviewed is that visioning as a core competency can be developed.
Elenkov et al. (2005) define strategic leadership as the process of forming a vision for the future, communicating it to subordinates, stimulating and motivating followers, and engaging in strategy supportive exchanges with peers and subordinates. Ireland and Hitt (1999) perceive strategic leadership as a person’s ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, think strategically, and work with others to initiate changes that will create a viable future for the organization. According to Mumford et al. (2007), a vision is seen to involve the construction of an idealized, prescriptive, mental model of the social system at hand. Unlike a plan, this prescriptive mental model may not be attainable. However, it provides guidelines for leader action. Correspondingly, it is commonly noted or mentioned that entrepreneurs carry a vision in their mind that they would like to realize, that they are driven by and that they set their actions by this vision.