Entrepreneurial Stewardship and Implicit CSR: The Responsible Leadership of Lillian Shedd McMurry

Although interest in the implications of ethical stewardship, responsible leadership, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) is mounting, research development of these concepts is still at a nascent stage with critical issues regarding frameworks yet to be resolved. Regrettably, much of the current research has focused solely on macro concerns, largely ignoring the significant micro level leadership questions. In addition, the preponderance of the emerging literature in these domains has fixated on large corporations, ignoring the realities of most entrepreneurial ventures and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In the smaller entrepreneurial setting, we argue that current interpretations of what constitutes ethical stewardship and socially responsible leadership should be adapted. Towards this aim, we examined the historical case of Lillian Shedd McMurry, the extraordinary entrepreneurial leader of Trumpet Records, a 1950s independent record label, to define entrepreneurial stewardship and identify specific elements inherent within the role of entrepreneur as ethical steward and socially responsible leader.