Investigations of the cascading effect of hotel entrepreneur’s optimism on employees’ work behaviors and customers evaluations in small and medium hospitality enterprises

Abstract

Given the significant proportion of small and medium hospitality enterprises (SMHEs) in the hospitality and tourism industry, this study focuses on the influential role and the power of entrepreneurs. Integrating optimism theory and social learning theory, we delineate how the entrepreneur’s attributes and leadership exert a cascading effect across hierarchical levels, impacting both employees and customers. A multisource field study (248 entrepreneurs, 681 employees, and 1179 customers) shows that an entrepreneur’s optimism drives adaptation to new leadership styles, i.e., e-leadership and green leadership, crucial for achieving the organization’s goals regarding digital transformation and sustainability. An entrepreneur’s e-leadership positively affects employees’ creative performance, while green leadership has a crossover effect on employees’ green behaviors, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction and ratings. We discuss new implications for understanding both the emergence and the profound effects of new leadership styles, especially in the context of SMHEs in the hospitality and tourism industry.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 2026 · DOI ↗