Purpose This study examines the direct effect of conscious leadership on organizational culture in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and tests whether higher purpose mediates this relationship, thereby advancing understanding of the micro-to-meso translation processes within conscious capitalism. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey of 115 Mexican SMEs was conducted. Data from senior executives were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS SEM). Mediation was tested via bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples, and robustness checks addressed common method bias and predictive validity. Findings Conscious leadership has a strong direct effect on conscious culture (beta = 0.512, p < 0.001). Higher purpose partially mediates this relationship (indirect effect beta = 0.198, p = 0.007), revealing complementary behavioral and sensegiving pathways that together explain 55.1% of the variance in conscious culture. Practical implications SME leaders can embed higher purpose through purpose-based decision checklists, purpose-linked KPIs and stakeholder scorecards tracking safety, decent work and customer trust. Leadership development should train owner-managers as meaning makers skilled in sensegiving. At the policy level, existing SME training programs and public financing schemes could incorporate purpose-articulation modules at low cost, embedding ethical reflection into established support mechanisms without significant additional burdens. Originality/value Despite growing attention to conscious leadership and purpose, empirical research on how leaders shape culture in SMEs remains scarce - particularly in emerging economies such as Mexico, where strong founder imprinting and weaker formal institutionalization make leadership influence especially salient and observable. By theorizing and empirically testing higher purpose as a sensegiving mechanism, this study moves conscious capitalism toward greater explanatory rigor, offering a dual-pathway framework for cultivating ethical cultures through leadership enactment and purposeful institutionalization.
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