The Impact of Authentic Leadership on Entrepreneurial Behavior: Focusing on Startup Companies

The purpose of this research is to examine how authentic leadership drives employees’entrepreneurial behavior in startup companies in Korea by testing the relationship between authenticleadership, role breadth self-efficacy, failure-related trust, future work self salience, and entrepreneurialbehavior. This study employed a survey and the respondents were from startup companies. Byperforming a moderated mediation analysis using the PROCESS macro for SPSS, this study examinesthe established research hypotheses. The findings of this study indicated that authentic leadershiphas a positive effect on role breadth self-efficacy and failure-related trust; role breadth self-efficacyand failure-related trust have a positive effect on entrepreneurial behavior as well as positively mediatethe relationship between authentic leadership and entrepreneurial behavior; and future work self saliencemoderates the role of failure-related trust in mediating the positive relationship between authenticleadership and entrepreneurial behavior. The findings of this study help entrepreneurial organizationsprepare proper leadership strategies as well as interventions. By examining young organizations andinviting the concept of future work self salience, this study contributes to broaden the knowledgeof authentic leadership.