This study aims to bridge the gap in leadership theories that view adaptability and opportunity recognition as separate processes. It proposes adapreneurial leadership—a mid-range theoretical construct positioned at the intersection of adaptive systems thinking and entrepreneurial execution—as a response to the strategic leadership challenges faced in digitally volatile and structurally constrained emerging marketing environments.
Grounded in dynamic capabilities, complexity leadership and effectuation theory, the study reconceptualises leadership as a systemic design capability, moving beyond conventional behaviour or relationship-based models. To empirically test this conceptualisation, and in recognition of agility’s prevalent operationalisation through quantitative constructs, the study used partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), using data from 232 agile practitioners in the Indian IT sector.
The findings reveal that adapreneurial leadership impacts sustainable digital transformation outcomes both directly and indirectly through Agile Transformation Maturity, serving as a mediating variable. This demonstrates the model’s ability to integrate strategic adaptiveness with organisational learning frameworks, thereby enhancing agility.
This study is cross-sectional and focuses on India’s IT sector. Future scholars should explore longitudinal patterns, validate scales across different geographies and assess the applicability of these scales in industries with high regulatory requirements.
This study advances the understanding of how leaders and policymakers can shift from motivational leadership to designing agile, opportunity-driven systems that embed flexibility, innovation and strategic responsiveness into organisational architecture.
This study contributes to the discourse on leadership, complexity and digital transformation by establishing adapreneurial leadership as a systemic leadership capability and advancing mid-range theory with entrepreneurial intent, structural adaptability and ecosystem design.
This study introduces adapreneurial leadership as a mid-range theory, redefining leadership as the ability to design and coordinate complex systems, which enables systemic change in both constricted and turbulent contexts, and makes a key contribution to the theory. It also critiques the existing theories for their linearity and Western-centricity. It proposes an integrated model for a more relevant, empirically validated framework for digitally transforming organisations in emerging market economies.
