A qualitative investigation of contemporary leadership models for sustainable businesses in times of crises

This research aims to systematically synthesize the association between leadership, sustainable business and crisis using the SPAR-4-SLR protocol. The Scopus database was used for the search process. The initial search in the Scopus database using the keywords (“leadership” OR “management” OR “administration” OR “governance” OR “supervision AND “sustainable business” OR “sustainable venture” OR “sustainable start-ups” or “sustainable enterprises” AND “crisis” OR “uncertainty” OR “situation” OR “emergency”) yielded 282 articles from 2002 to 2024, and after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 131 articles were subjected to bibliometric analysis using VOS viewer software for network visualization and performance mapping. The important themes were identified for future researchers related to the three major constructs used as keywords for the analysis. The results revealed that the year 2023 recorded the maximum number of publications with 18 articles. China is the top contributing country with 16 publications on the theme of leadership, sustainable business and crisis, followed by India with 13 publications and the United States with 13 publications. The maximum number of publications belonged to the business, management, and accounting subject area with 74 research articles and contributed 23% to the overall research area. The top contributing authors belonged to the Universidad Europea de Madrid. The practical examples provided in the present study will help business leaders to better understand the needs of followers by applying the leadership models discussed in the study to tackle uncertain situations effectively.