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

IntroductionLillian McMurry was the founder of Trumpet Records, a 1950s American independent record label (see Humphreys, Pane Haden, Novicevic, Clayton, & Gibson, 2011). Although not a social entrepreneur by most definitions, the socially responsible stewardship she provided to those within her sphere of influence was remarkable. Grounded in current conceptualizations of stewardship, responsible leadership, and corporate social responsibility (CSR), we reason that an examination of the ethically responsible stewardship of this notable entrepreneur is warranted.Although interest in the implications of ethical stewardship, responsible leadership, and CSR is mounting, research development of these concepts is still at a nascent stage with many critical issues regarding specific frameworks yet to be resolved (Morgeson, Aguinis, Waldman, & Siegel, 2011). Complicating matters further, these related constructs have developed their own bodies of knowledge and are explicated in a myriad of academic disciplines that too often ignore their "interrelationships and interdependencies" (Fassin, Rossem, & Buelens, 2010, p. 425).Moreover, the debates within these domains have focused solely on macro concerns, largely ignoring the significant micro level leadership questions (Angus-Leppan, Metcalf, & Benn, 2009). This is regrettable, as the link between leader behavior and CSR is intuitive (Hunt, Kiecker, & Chonko, 1990) and, to a degree, empirically supported (Godos-Diez, FernandezGago, & Martinez-Campillo, 2011). Still, insufficient development has led to the call for further conceptualizations of responsible leaders as drivers of social responsibility (Siegal, 2009).In addition, the preponderance of the emerging literature at the intersection of managerial leadership and social responsibility has fixated on large corporations (Spence, Schmidpeter, & Habisch, 2003), ignoring the realities of most entrepreneurial ventures (Fassin et al., 2010). 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 analyzed the historical case of Lillian Shedd McMurry to identify specific elements inherent within the role of entrepreneur as ethical steward and socially responsible leader.Insights from Historical CasesGiven the nascent stage of conceptualizing frameworks for socially responsible entrepreneurial stewardship, the examination of a historical case is appropriate (Yin, 2003). When theory is at such an embryonic point, inductive studies of unique cases can provide more compelling insights than broad empirical studies can offer (Siggelkow, 2007).To conduct our research, we examined the background material and excerpts available in Ryan's (2004) biography of Lillian McMurry, Trampet Records: Diamonds on Farish Street, and the recent article by Humphreys, Pane Haden et al. (2011), which substantiated the noteworthy integrity and authenticity of this entrepreneurial leader. We then turned our attention to the primary data available in the Trumpet Records/Lillian Shedd McMurry Collection, which is available at the Department of Archives & Special Collections, J.D. Williams Library, at the University of Mississippi. In doing so, the analysis of the archived materials generally aligned with a sociohistorical archival methodology. Sociohistorical archival techniques require researchers to analyze documents with respect to the context in which they were created to provide social science interpretations through excerpts that relate to the theory directing the archival research (see Novicevic, Humphreys, Buckley, Cagle, & Roberts, 2011). The initial primary guiding construct in our examination of the Lillian McMurry data was the elemental ethical stewardship framework proposed by Caldwell, Hayes, Karri, and Bernai (2008).Lillian Shedd McMurry and Trumpet RecordsThe history of the rise of the independent record labels in the U. …