Unpacking Entrepreneurial Culture and Leadership in Family Business: Scale Development and Validation in Emerging Economies

Abstract The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a scale that captures entrepreneurial culture and leadership (ECL) within family-owned firms in an emerging economy context like India, where family enterprises dominate the business landscape. Drawing on prior literature, an initial pool of items was generated and refined through expert review and pilot testing. Data from 394 family businesses were collected using a structured survey, analyzed, and tested using structural equation modeling in AMOS. The results yielded a reliable and valid multi-dimensional ECL construct, comprising entrepreneurial culture and leadership support. For nomological validity, it demonstrates a positive and significant relationship with family business performance. By offering a context-sensitive measurement instrument, this study extends family business research beyond Western settings and highlights how entrepreneurial culture and leadership operate as complementary organizational capabilities in Indian family firms. The research instrument provides researchers and practitioners with a diagnostic tool to assess and strengthen cultural and leadership capacities. The findings contribute to the scale development in family business research and open pathways for examining how family-specific factors shape the culture-leadership and performance nexus in emerging economies.