Microfoundations of entrepreneurial leadership: Successful women entrepreneurs in a developing economy

This study explores how entrepreneurial leadership (EL) develops and is enacted in women-led ventures within a non-Western, patriarchal context. Using a microfoundational lens and multiple case studies of successful Pakistani women entrepreneurs, we uncover how EL emerges through contextually embedded enablers, emerging tensions, and navigating tactics. Findings reveal that women draw on family support, elite networks, and symbolic cues to build legitimacy and influence, while navigating gendered constraints and power asymmetries. Our model advances a processual understanding of EL, demonstrating how micro-level actions, shaped by sociocultural context, contribute to opportunity recognition, venture growth, and leadership legitimacy in underresearched settings.