The present study argues that there managerial and entrepreneurial orientations on the part of manager should have different effects on company performance. To test the impact of entrepreneurial, managerial and mixed leadership orientations of owner-managers on the sales performance of their companies, data was collected from a sample of 204 owner-managers of Sri Lankan companies from a mailed questionnaire. The results of a correlation and regression analysis on the responses of the subjects indicate that the leadership orientation of owner-managers of small firms is more entrepreneurial than managerial. Also, that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has a more positive impact on firm performance than does either managerial orientation (MO). The relative impact of the owner-manager having a mixed orientation of leadership on company performance is more positive than that of MO in the case of medium and large firms. Practical implications for the research include assisting owner-managers to determine the likelihood of appropriate leadership orientations relevant to their particular context and firm size.
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