Impact of leadership styles and market orientation behaviour on small firms performance in Botswana

Abstract

This study primarily investigated leadership and market orientation behaviours which influence Botswana’s small firm’s performance. Snowball sampling was used to select 262 owner managers of small firms in Gaborone and Francistown. In addition, factor analysis, correlation coefficient, and regression analysis were used to examine the data collected. It was found that there is a positive relationship between laissez fair, transformational, democratic leadership behaviour and market orientation. Inter-functional coordination and competitor orientation were found to be positively related to business performance and customer orientation, as well as competitor orientation on employee commitment and customer consequences for small firms in Botswana. This paper contributes to the extant literature by extending the strategic research direction, which provides small firms’ managers and policy makers with a more understandable guide to leadership behaviour and market oriented activities in the context of small firm’s performance in Botswana.