Recently established high-growth, technology- focused organisations are bringing new and innovative products to the market at an extremely rapid pace. Examples of these types of organisations such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and the products they
provide to consumers and businesses are changing how we interact and engage with each other on an individual, societal and on an organisational level. A commonality between this type of company is, firstly, their relatively short organisational life span, often they
are only 10-15 years old, and secondly, how rapidly they have grown or scaled into multibillion-dollar organisations. This research study aims to explore this type of organisation after they have made the transition from the ‘start-up’ to the ‘scale-up’ phase of
organisational growth, and to understand the specific entrepreneurial leadership motivators, behaviours and roles (sometimes impacted by elements of context) which supported them in making this transition. The research study looks at a sample of leaders
of technology-focused, high-growth companies, based in the London area of the UK, which have made this transition. What are the main commonalities amongst their Leadership capabilities and competencies which, by inference, played a part in this process? The researcher suggests that insights into these can help investors and other stakeholders differentiate between potential winners and losers in this journey from startup to scaled-up phase of an organisation.

Previous studies have focused on the leadership practices within larger, more mature organisations, and have explored how research studies into the leadership practices and behaviours at this type of organisation has influenced how we think about leadership in
the past. With the advent of these more recently-founded, technology-focused organisations, this research study aims to explore the particular type of leadership practices, especially in terms of motivations, behaviours and roles in this specific type of organisation, influenced by context, to help inform us about how leadership practice can evolve during this journey. This study aimed to produce a predictive framework of the most effective leader motivators/roles/behaviours in this con text, and additionally has taken this framework a stage further with the creation of a simple diagnostic instrument. The literature review as outlined in this research study has provided a basis of previous research in which to explore this phenomenon. However, as previously mentioned, research to date has tended to not explore leadership motivators/roles/behaviours in this particular context. This creates a potential gap in the research relating to these specific types of organisations. Using research by Mintzberg (1971, 1975) relating to the work that
managers and leaders do in an organisation, and the work of Belbin (1981), explaining the various roles in a team that can make that management or leadership team successful, has provided much of the theoretical framework in which to address the research question, augmented by the use of further tools accessed after the proposal phase.

Employing a qualitative research approach, the study has gathered data from a number of leaders of organisations who have made this transition from the start-up company to the more scaled-up business. The data gathered was analysed using a content analysis
approach, using both deductive and inductive methods of analysis. The outcome of the research study seeks to understand the specific leadership practices, in terms of motivators, behaviours and roles performed in these particular types of organisations
during this specific phase of growth, from a start-up to a scaled-up phase. The data gathered was analysed through the theoretical framework, as previously mentioned, to provide findings to inform a predictive framework of what might be some of the more
appropriate and relevant leadership motivators, behaviours and roles performed that can help transition organisations from start-up to scaled-up mode in these type of environments.

This research study, based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with ten respondents who were members of successful entrepreneurial leadership teams, concluded (in line with much of the literature accessed) that leader motivators, behaviours and roles, evolved significantly. The researcher identified specifically eleven dimensions. Leaders surviving and indeed flourishing in the transitional journey were seen as capable of evolving between (and embracing both sides of) a series of binary contexts, able to discard one and adopt the other according to contextual pressures. Thus the entrepreneurial leader must cope with evolving dichotomies in a positive way. The major contribution of the researcher was arguably to identify these eleven dimensions: external-internal orientation; control/autonomy-delegation; solving-anticipating problems; wide-narrow range of leader behaviours; high-low risk tolerance of mistakes; low-high role clarity requirement; evolving-codified cultural context; low-high vision related to reality; old-new vision represented by leader as figurehead; high-low risk of single points of failure from each new hire; and unstructured-hierarchical organisational context. Based on these eleven dimensions, the researcher also produced a basic diagnostic tool as a further possibility of a practical application of his research. He suggests that testing this tool could be an important area for further research.