Nuong Thi Le

Leadership style is a key factor shaping employee engagement and performance, which in turn determines organizational success. This study investigated the relationship between leadership style, work engagement, and employee performance in women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. Over three months (March to May 2024), 1,000 questionnaires were distributed via Google Forms to employees working in women-owned SMEs in Vietnam; 465 responses were received, of which 376 were considered valid for analysis. The workforce was predominantly female, aged 36–45, with a high school education or less, and the highest proportion was those with 3–6 years of work experience. SMART PLS Version 4.0 software was used to test the research hypotheses. The findings showed that transformational leadership had the most positive effect on work engagement and employee performance, followed by transactional and democratic styles. In contrast, the authoritarian and laissez-faire leadership styles had lower impacts on employee engagement and performance than the previous three leadership styles, but in the opposite direction. Notably, work engagement played a mediating role in the relationship between leadership style and employee performance. This study suggests that leaders should adopt a flexible approach to leadership, particularly by leveraging the strengths of transformational, transactional, and democratic styles, while minimizing the use of authoritarian and laissez-faire approaches.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
As the global economy increasingly emphasizes sustainable development, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies face growing pressure to integrate environmental responsibility with long-term business performance. This study aims to examine how environmental leadership and corporate social responsibility contribute to sustainable success in women-owned SMEs through the roles of green innovation and green competitive advantage. The paper analyzes survey data collected from 536 female business leaders in Vietnam using partial least squares structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The results reveal that environmental leadership and corporate social responsibility do not exert a direct influence on sustainable success (p > 0.05). Instead, their effects operate through a full serial mediation mechanism in which corporate social responsibility stimulates green innovation, which subsequently strengthens green competitive advantage and ultimately enhances sustainable success. The structural model explains 52.1% of the variance in sustainable success. In addition, market orientation significantly strengthens the relationship between green competitive advantage and sustainable success (β = 0.176, p < 0.001). Configurational analysis further identifies two alternative strategic pathways leading to high sustainable success, both highlighting the central role of green innovation and green competitive advantage. These findings demonstrate that ethical leadership values must be transformed into concrete green capabilities to generate sustainable competitive performance in resource-constrained environments.

Acknowledgment
This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under grant number 504.05-2023.05.