Thriving big data artificial intelligence: entrepreneurial leadership, proactive personality and affective commitment to innovate micro and small family businesses

Purpose This study examines the impact of entrepreneurial leadership (EL) on Chinese micro and small family businesses’ (MSFBs) innovativeness. Drawing on the resource-based view, this research study further explores the intermediary roles of proactive personality (PP) and affective commitment (AC) between ELs’ and MSFBs’ innovativeness. Besides this, the present work proposes a novel contingency impact of big data-powered artificial intelligence (BDAI) between EL, PP and AC, which indirectly spurs MSFBs’ innovativeness. Design/methodology/approach This study proposed a moderated mediation model using multi-wave, multi-source, time-lagged datasets of 380 employees from 190 Chinese MSFBs. We tested our hypotheses using structural equation modeling through the PLS technique. Findings The findings reveal a significant impact of EL on MSFB innovativeness, underscoring the pivotal intermediary roles of EL in driving MSFB innovativeness. Furthermore, BDAI emerges as a critical contingency factor, amplifying the effects of EL on both PP and AC to spur MSFBs’ innovativeness. Practical implications Our research offers several practical implications for Chinese MSFBs aiming to enhance innovativeness and competitive advantage. Firstly, understanding the direct impact of EL on MSFBs’ innovativeness provides valuable guidance for MSFB leaders. Secondly, recognizing the mediating roles of PP and AC underscores the importance of human and social capital in driving innovation within Chinese MSFBs. Thirdly, leveraging BDAI as a contingency factor can further augment the effects of EL on both PP and AC, thereby enhancing innovation outcomes. Thus, managers can capitalize on BDAI to gain actionable insights to increase MSFBs’ innovativeness. Originality/value This study enlightened how EL can develop MSFBs innovativeness through PP and AC. Our findings reveal that MSFBs can increase their innovation by leveraging PP and AC, leading to higher proactive provision in employees’ behavior. Subsequently, our results synchronized the exploration of BDAI as a novel insight for MSFB innovativeness. This shed light on a highly notable contribution to understanding BDAI to benefit MSFBs, acting as a critical contingency between EL, PP and AC.