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This paper seeks to point out the relationship between women leadership and their role in the transformation of university organizations, on the basis of eight case studies analysed in the framework of a broader research on women who occupy high‐managerial posts in Spanish universities.

Two of the eight cases studied are more deeply described and discussed in terms of the relationship among the organizational context in which these women leaders perform their managerial functions, the leadership styles that they deploy, as well as the transformations they promoted in critical moments of the organizations that they head.

Even though the differences in all these aspects between the two cases studied do not allow a single and homogeneous “feminine style” of management to be identified, a flexible and adaptive common orientation in terms of leadership was found, which leads one to suggest that leadership style is not a relevant issue when managing loosely coupled organizations. Furthermore, some conclusions were established about the ability of these woman managers both to read organizational culture and to drive such changes, preserving social cohesiveness and the workplace climate. To achieve this, they adopted a flexible leadership style on the basis of a wide range of power sources.

The findings support the idea that the loosely coupled structures characteristic of a higher education organization need “soft” ways of power management, oriented more towards informal social networks than formal issues. This allows one to discuss the innovative role that women potentially and actually play in higher education organizations.

This study aims to examine the effect of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on performance and mediation differentiation strategies and market development in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

This research was conducted using a survey method with a population of furniture SMEs in Jepara, Central Java, Indonesia using a sample area by collecting 158 questionnaires. The data analysis method used the partial least square.

The result shows that EO has an impact on differentiation, market development and performance. Differentiation strategies and market development mediate the influence of EO and performance. The differentiation strategy further mediates the influence of EO on market development and market development mediates the effect of differentiation on performance.

Managers instill entrepreneurial practice in the organization by proactively creating the market and taking high-risk jobs to provide quality products and services. SMEs require capabilities that are difficult to imitate in creating designs and product quality that are different, providing pre and post-sales services and maintaining good relationships with customers and partners. SMEs emphasize flexibility and speed of operation by adjusting the production process to short waiting times and reliable delivery. The government must support general training and market information, network development, access to capital and knowledge transfer.

This paper explains the importance of differentiation and market development strategies in determining the relationship between EO and performance that has not been explored in the context of SMEs in developing countries.