Research On The Impact Mechanism Of Niche Entrepreneurial Leadership On The Competitive Advantage Of Small And Medium-sized SRDI Enterprises

With the increasingly obvious trend of anti-globalization,issues such as key technologies being constrained by others and low domestic substitution rates are becoming increasingly prominent.In this context,the government strongly supports the development of small and medium-sized enterprises with the characteristics of specialization,refinement,differentiation and innovation(SRDI enterprises).SRDI enterprises are small and medium-sized enterprises that follow the development path of specialization,refinement,differentiation and innovation.Through long-term deep cultivation in key core technology fields,they have become a new force in strengthening,supplementing,and fixing the chain,and are an important engine for the high-quality development of China’s economy.The essence of the game between major powers such as China and the United States lies in technological innovation,which is specifically reflected in the seizing of technological heights by various countries.In the situation where many core technologies are monopolized by the West and the technological blockade adopted by the West towards China to escalate,how SRDI enterprises can break through difficulties and establish competitive advantages in segmented markets has become an important issue of concern for both academia and practice.Practice has shown that leaders of SRDI enterprises inspire employees with the spirit of being precise and specialized in the segmented field,and lead them to delve deeper into the segmented field to achieve the goal of leading enterprises in segmented industries.This indicates that leaders play a decisive role in the success or failure of the enterprise.The Leadership Theory emphasizes that leaders are scarcity strategic resources of enterprises,and their leadership is an important source of competitive advantages of enterprises.Therefore,the Leadership Theory provides a new research perspective for this article.In recent years,although more and more scholars have begun to pay attention to the impact of entrepreneurial leadership on the survival and development of enterprises,the relevant research conclusions are still limited.At the same time,the special connotation of entrepreneurial leadership in new enterprises such as SRDI enterprises has not been taken into account.The Leadership Theory needs to be further deepened in the Chinese context.This article proposes the concept of niche entrepreneurial leadership based on the thought of "niche" management and existing research on entrepreneurial leadership,to describe the unique type of leadership possessed by leaders in SRDI enterprises.At the same time,it raises the question of how to open the black box between niche entrepreneurial leadership and competitive advantages in segmented markets.In view of this,this article believes that there is an urgent need to break through the direct relationship between niche entrepreneurial leadership and the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises,and introduce mediating and moderating variables to explore the relationship between the two.Entrepreneurial practice shows that conducting entrepreneurial behavior under strategic guidance is an important way for SRDI enterprises to transform from "small and beautiful" to "large and strong".It is the foundation for SRDI enterprises to break through their limitations and gain sustainable competitive advantages in segmented markets.On the one hand,leaders elevate the niche entrepreneurial leadership to the level of organizational strategy,condense it into the specialization strategy to guide SRDI enterprises to integrate and allocate resources around segmented markets,thereby forming core competitive advantages in segmented fields;On the one hand,leaders acquire new knowledge in segmented fields by creating an innovative atmosphere and utilizing exploratory learning behavior to develop new products,thereby enhancing the competitiveness of their main products in segmented markets;On the other hand,leaders help enterprises achieve process optimization by strengthening the flow and sharing of knowledge within the organization,and through exploitative learning,thereby promoting the expansion of global segmented markets.In addition,the digital capabilities within enterprises can help SRDI enterprises improve operational efficiency by identifying market opportunities more keenly,increasing the speed of flow and transfer of knowledge and other data resources within the organization and between different entities,and utilizing digital technology to achieve intelligent manufacturing.In addition,the regional entrepreneurial ecology influences the implementation of specialization strategies by providing necessary material support such as funding and talent,promote cooperation between industry,academia,and research,and providing policy support,thereby affecting the establishment of enterprise competitive advantages.This article takes the special leadership of leaders of SRDI enterprises,namely niche entrepreneurial leadership,as the entry point,it deeply explores the mechanism of niche entrepreneurial leadership’s impact on specialization strategy,ambidextrous learning,and enterprise competitive advantage,and further explores the role of digital capabilities and regional entrepreneurship ecology in the mechanism of niche entrepreneurial leadership,specialization strategy,ambidextrous learning,and the competitive advantage of enterprises.Based on the Leadership Theory,Upper Echelons Theory and Niche Theory,this study systematically studies the influence mechanism of niche entrepreneurial leadership on the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises.Firstly,after a systematic review of the theories and literature related to the variables involved,the study preliminarily defined the variables involved.Subsequently,based on exploratory multiple case analysis,a theoretical model and research hypothesis were proposed to explore the impact of niche entrepreneurial leadership on a company’s competitive advantage through specialization strategy and ambidextrous learning,and further explore the impact mechanism of niche entrepreneurial leadership on the company’s competitive advantage.In terms of empirical research,this article selects a questionnaire survey method and obtains 355 valid questionnaires from regions with high,medium,and low levels of entrepreneurial activity in China in two stages.Subsequently,the Bootstrap method was used to empirically test the research hypothesis,and the following research conclusions were obtained:(1)Niche entrepreneurial leadership positively affects the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises;(2)The specialization strategy and ambidextrous learning play a dual mediating role between niche entrepreneurial leadership and the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises.Ambidextrous learning includes two dimensions: exploratory learning and exploitative learning;(3)The specialization strategy and ambidextrous learning play a chain mediating role between niche entrepreneurial leadership and the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises;(4)Digital capabilities and regional entrepreneurial ecology play a moderating role in the relationship between ambidextrous learning and the competitive advantages of SRDI enterprises.At the same time,digital capabilities and regional entrepreneurial ecology also positively regulate the mediating effect of ambidextrous learning in the relationship between niche entrepreneurial leadership and the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises.In addition,digital capabilities regulate the relationship between specialization strategy and the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises,as well as the mediating effect of specialization strategy,while regional entrepreneurial ecology has no significant moderating effect on specialization strategy and competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises,as well as the moderating mechanism of specialization strategy.This study has the following four innovations:First,this study enriches the Leadership Theory,extends the conceptual connotation of entrepreneurial leadership and expands its application scenarios,and extends the New Leadership Theory to SRDI enterprises.In order to actively respond to the call to build a management theory with Chinese characteristics,this study combines the characteristics of SRDI enterprises to summarize and propose the concept of "niche entrepreneurship leadership".It is believed that enterprise leaders guide SRDI enterprises to build unique and sustainable competitive advantages in global segmented industries through two types of leadership behaviors: the construction of leading vision in segmented industries and the construction of deep cultivation tasks in segmented fields.The conclusion of this study not only clarifies the connotation of leadership in SRDI enterprise leaders,but also expands the research on entrepreneurial leadership and enriches the applicable scenarios of entrepreneurial leadership,making contributions to a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and enterprise competitive advantage.At the same time,this original concept is applicable to various enterprises at the municipal,provincial and national levels that are developing towards the direction of SRDI.It provides guidance for leaders of various SRDI enterprises to exert their niche entrepreneurial leadership role.Second,this study expands the relevant research results of the Upper Echelons Theory and Niche Theory,and reveals the mediating role of specialization strategy and ambidextrous learning in the relationship between niche entrepreneurial leadership and the competitive advantage in the segmented market.According to Upper Echelons Theory,enterprise leaders make strategic decisions and adjust organizational behavior on the basis of external environment,internal resources,capabilities and other conditions to improve performance and help enterprises adapt to changes in the external environment,but few scholars explore whether the above research conclusions are applicable to SRDI enterprises,At the same time,there is also little research exploring the mechanism by which niche entrepreneurial leadership constructs and enhances competitive advantages through entrepreneurial behavior under strategic guidance.In view of this,in order to make up for the shortcomings of the above research,this article starts from the perspective of strategic management and corporate behavior,and further explores the impact of corporate strategic choices and entrepreneurial behavior processes on the relationship between niche entrepreneurial leadership and the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises.It provides path guidance for leaders of SRDI enterprises to play the role of niche entrepreneurial leadership and effectively achieve entrepreneurial behavior,and further enriched the research on the relationship between niche entrepreneurial leadership and the competitive advantages of SRDI enterprises.Third,this study reveals the chain mediating effect of specialization strategy and ambidextrous learning between niche entrepreneurial leadership and the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises.Existing research has not paid much attention to the correlation between different mediating pathways between entrepreneurial leadership and corporate competitive advantage,as well as the order of action between mediating variables.In view of this,based on the Upper Echelons Theory and Niche Theory,this study proposes and verifies the positive correlation between the specialization strategy focusing on the development of market segments and the exploration of cutting-edge technologies in the segmented field,and the ambidextrous learning focusing on the acquisition of new knowledge outside the enterprise and the integration of existing knowledge,as well as the chain mediating mechanism played by specialization strategy and ambidextrous learning between niche entrepreneurial leadership and the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises.On the one hand,this study validates the relevant inferences in Upper Echelons Theory regarding enterprise behavior such as organizational learning(at the organizational behavior level)under strategic guidance(at the organizational strategy level),providing support for the research of executives guiding enterprise behavior through strategy.On the other hand,this study strongly reveals the complex mediating mechanism between niche entrepreneurial leadership and the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises,providing new ideas for exploring how enterprise leaders can enhance the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises by influencing organizational strategy formulation and organizational learning behavior.Fourth,this study further clarifies the research boundaries of Leadership Theory and the Upper Echelons Theory,revealing the relationship between digital capabilities and regional entrepreneurial ecology on specialization strategy,ambidextrous learning,and corporate competitive advantage,as well as the mediating effect of specialization strategy and ambidextrous learning,that is,the boundary conditions under which niche entrepreneurship leadership indirectly affects the competitive advantage of SRDI enterprises through specialization strategy and ambidextrous learning.The empirical results indicate that the digital capabilities within the enterprise and the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem outside the enterprise are important factors that affect the implementation effect of SRDI enterprise specialization strategies and the effectiveness of ambidextrous learning behavior.The research conclusion clearly answers the question of how niche entrepreneurial leadership can optimize entrepreneurial behavior through strategic implementation in different contexts,thereby achieving the construction and enhancement of competitive advantages in segmented industries.In view of this,the research conclusion of this article compensates for the insufficient understanding of the boundary between entrepreneurial leadership and competitive advantage of special enterprise leaders such as specialized,refined,and new enterprises in existing research,and clarifies the applicability of the research conclusion.In view of this,the research conclusion of this article compensates for the insufficient understanding of the boundary between entrepreneurial leadership from special enterprise such as SRDI enterprises and competitive advantage in existing research,and clarifies the applicability of the research conclusion.