Revealing Entrepreneurial Acting and Thinking Among School Leaders in the K-12 Setting – A Scoping Review

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The link between entrepreneurship and school leadership is increasingly recognized as essential for effective school improvement. Entrepreneurship involves creative and innovative value creation, while school leadership focuses on influencing teachers and stakeholders to establish an effective learning environment benefiting students, teachers, parents, and society. This scoping review maps existing literature on this link, identifies relevant concepts and theories, and examines the impact of entrepreneurial actions by school leaders in K-12 education. Following the PRISMA-ScR protocol, articles were sourced from the databases Scopus, Web of Science, and ERIC. After screening abstracts and full texts, 64 articles were identified. Using a reflexive and thematic analysis approach, the review shows that 20 studies define entrepreneurship, 13 explore entrepreneurs’ actions and characteristics, and 14 discuss entrepreneurial leadership. Several studies investigated various entrepreneurship concepts within K-12 school leadership, identifying eight related themes. However, only a few studies addressed the impact of entrepreneurial leadership on schools. Five studies highlighted the positive effects on school development, while others focused on phenomena concerning entrepreneurial leadership in schools or examined entrepreneurship in specific school types. This paper provides valuable insights into current research on entrepreneurship and school leadership and identifies gaps for future research.
Original languageEnglish
JournalLeadership and Policy in Schools
Number of pages26
ISSN1570-0763
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 03.2025