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CEOs facing the challenge of stimulating innovation must select one or more champions to entrust with that critical mission. Selecting the right manager who will have the leadership skills, charisma and determination to lead a major innovation initiative is one of the most important decisions a CEO has to make. But innovation comes in many different varieties – new product category, new business model, improved customer solution, improved product, process or service offering. So it's appropriate to also ask, “Is a different leadership profile needed for each particular type of innovation?” And also, “How do we choose the best person to lead a particular innovation effort?”

The question, “What qualities does our innovation initiative leader need?” can be addressed in four steps: define innovation leadership and offer a simple classification of innovation leaders based on the focus of their contribution; suggest a broad typology of innovation that reflects both the strategic objectives pursued and the way innovation occurs; describe a number of broad leadership imperatives implicit in each generic innovation effort; and identify some key leadership skills, qualities and styles required for success in each generic type of innovation effort.

This article defines four generic innovation strategies with distinct leadership imperatives. Each of these four strategies requires a different emphasis by management in at least four areas: enabling process, organizational mechanism, cultural trait and people profile.

Based chiefly on the author's lengthy experience. Needs analytic study.

Explains why top management plays the vital role of hiring the right people to manage each kind of innovation effort. Shows how to match specific types of innovation projects with executives with specific skill sets. By starting with a classic typology of innovation according to its objectives, scope, intensity and boundaries, it defines four generic innovation strategies with distinct leadership imperatives.

Shows why top management must fully understand the importance of matching the skills of innovation leaders with the specific tasks and roles they will face in specific situations. Ultimately, it is up to top management to ascertain that it has the necessary cadre of innovation leaders with profiles matched to the company's innovation efforts.

This research aims to examine the link between distributed leadership and team ambidexterity and the sequential mediation of team climate innovation and knowledge management in this relationship.

This study draws on a sample of 546 knowledge workers involved within 157 service research and development (R&D) teams of knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs) and uses partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) through SMART PLS 4 to analyse the data collected.

Findings reveal that distributed leadership has a significant direct impact on team ambidexterity. Besides, they indicate that team climate innovation and knowledge management in teams mediate this link. Results also highlight the sequential mediation of team climate innovation and knowledge management in teams, linking distributed leadership to team ambidexterity.

This study explores the relationship between distributed leadership and ambidexterity at the team level and proposes a sequential mediation model linking these variables through team climate innovation and knowledge management in teams. It offers practical insights for KIFs’ managers on the importance of using a distributed leadership approach and building a team climate innovation to motivate R&D teams, encourage dynamic participation in knowledge management practices and cultivate both exploitative and exploratory learning activities.

The purpose of this study is to understand how leaders of entrepreneurial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Australia and Pakistan strategise and design their organisational environments to enable innovation and enhanced organisational performance.

Drawing from the resource-based view (RBV) theory, this study investigates the mediating role of workplace innovation between design leadership and organisational performance across entrepreneurial SMEs in Australia and Pakistan. Data were obtained from 367 top-level executives in Australia and 367 from Pakistan using paper-based and online surveys.

The results highlight significant cross-country differences, indicating that entrepreneurial SMEs in Pakistan tend to overlook the creation of an enabling work environment favourable for innovation, which reduces the positive impact on organisational performance. In contrast, Australian SMEs exhibit a stronger alignment between innovation and performance outcomes.

The study makes a theoretical contribution by extending RBV theory within the contexts of design leadership, workplace innovation and SME performance, particularly in comparative international settings.

The findings offer actionable strategies for SME leaders, particularly in developing economies, highlighting the significance of encouraging internal abilities such as a conducive innovation culture. This could model strategic development and training schemes designed to achieve sustainable competitive advantage through improved organisational performance.

This study uniquely reveals the differential mediating effect of workplace innovation on the design leadership–performance nexus in developed versus developing countries. The absence of significant mediation in Pakistan stresses the distinct entrepreneurial underlying forces and challenges faced by SMEs in developing economies.

Recognizing the crucial role of leadership in innovation, this study aims to investigate the role of ambidextrous leadership (opening and closing leadership behaviors) in marketing departments’ innovation ambidexterity (exploratory and exploitative innovations), including the mediating and moderating roles of marketing managers’ psychological capital (PsyCap) and proactive personality, respectively.

A two-wave survey of 198 marketing managers from firms in Vietnam was conducted. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used in hypotheses testing (net effects), and necessary condition analysis was used to decipher the necessity level of the determinants of innovation ambidexterity.

Opening leadership behavior positively affects exploratory innovation while closing leadership behavior enhances exploitative innovation. The effect of opening leadership behavior on exploratory innovation is mediated and moderated by PsyCap and proactive personality, respectively; the opposite is found for the relationship between closing leadership behavior and exploitative innovation. Finally, PsyCap is a necessary condition for exploratory innovation, whereas PsyCap and closing leadership behavior are necessary conditions for exploitative innovation.

Firms should pay attention to the role of ambidexterity in leadership to enable marketing managers to direct their marketing departments to acquire new knowledge, skills and processes, and reinforce existing ones to foster innovation ambidexterity. They should also consider the necessary role of the factors that help achieve the desired level of target outcomes.

This study identifies two boundary conditions (PsyCap, a mediator; and proactive personality, a moderator) for the relationship between opening leadership behavior and exploratory innovation. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to decipher the necessity level of the determinants of innovation ambidexterity.

This study aims to investigate the impact of entrepreneurial leadership on the innovation performance of new venture enterprises in Northeast China. Utilising the upper echelon theory (UET), resource-based view (RBV) and a quantitative research design with SmartPLS analysis, it seeks to understand how entrepreneurial leadership influences innovation outcomes.

Grounded in the upper echelon theory (UET) and resource-based view (RBV), this paper constructs a structural equation model to establish the mediating roles of innovation climate and absorptive capacity in the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and innovation performance. The study sample comprises 398 employees from new venture enterprises in Northeast China. The analysis uses SmartPLS to validate the mediating effects of organisational innovation climate and absorptive capacity on the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and innovation performance.

The study confirms that innovation climate and absorptive capacity mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and innovation performance, exerting a positive influence.

This research fills the gap in the literature regarding the impact of entrepreneurial leadership on the innovation performance of new ventures. Furthermore, it elucidates the mediating mechanisms of entrepreneurial leadership on innovation performance, contributing insights of both academic and practical significance.

This study aims to examine how employees’ perception of the ethical conduct of their leaders affects their level of green innovation and environmental performance. Therefore, this study investigated green innovation as a mediator between ethical leadership and environmental performance, specifically within the context of Pakistani restaurants.

Data was collected from the frontline employees using a convenience sampling method having a sample size of 213 respondents. The hypothesized model was analyzed through structural equation modeling using SmartPLS v3 software.

This study shows a (i) positive relationship between ethical leadership and environmental performance, (ii) positive association between ethical leadership and green innovation, (iii) positive relationship between green innovation and environmental performance and (iv) green innovation mediates between ethical leadership and environmental performance.

This research suggests that top management of the restaurants needs to focus on exhibiting ethical leadership behavior, thereby fostering green innovation practices that will improve the environmental performance of Pakistani restaurants.

The current study is novel as it investigates the association between ethical leadership, green innovation and environmental performance, specifically within the context of Pakistani restaurants.

To explore the role of digital leadership in fostering strategic agility, innovation adaptivity, organizational agility and resilience in the context of digital transformation.

Following an interpretive case study approach and using a thematic data analysis technique, we conducted 20 in-depth interviews with digital leaders from five different media firms across the UAE.

The findings reveal that digital leaders are central to developing and executing digital strategies that enhance organizational agility and competitive edge, particularly in firms’ digital transformation. Digital leaders catalyze innovation and adaptability, ensuring the organization’s readiness for technological and market shifts. Moreover, digital leaders are instrumental in fostering an environment that promotes continuous learning, technological integration and a culture of change, which drives organizational agility and resilience.

The originality of this study lies in its focused examination of digital leadership within the UAE’s media sector, offering new insights into how digital leadership drives strategic agility, innovation adaptivity, organizational agility and resilience in a regionally specific digital transformation context. Our findings contribute to the broader academic and practical understanding of digital transformation in the media industry.

Innovation and entrepreneurship competitions are employed as an important policy tool by the Chinese government and universities to promote entrepreneurship education and training. However, its effect has seldom been verified by empirical studies, especially in students’ leadership development, one of the core objectives of innovative talent cultivation. This study aims to test how undergraduate students’ participation and different team roles in innovation and entrepreneurship competitions can impact their leadership development.

Based on a questionnaire survey of 1,431 undergraduate students, this study used independent sample t-tests to verify the effect of whether to participate or not in innovation and entrepreneurship competitions on their self-reported leadership competence, and furthermore, to verify the effect of different team roles in the competitions on leadership improvement. Then, the propensity score matching method was used to verify whether team role was the most critical factor contributing to differences in leadership improvement.

The study found that undergraduate students who participated in the innovation and entrepreneurship competitions had significantly higher leadership value-added than non-participants. Among the students who participated in the competition, those who took the role of team leader were significantly better than team members in seven leadership dimensions, including sense of adventure, planning, information processing, problem solving and teamwork. They also differed in some individual educational experiences, family backgrounds and personal traits (especially vigor). The study verified that being a leader was a key factor in the difference of leadership improvement among undergraduate students.

On the one hand, the introduction of the vigor factor into the field of undergraduate student development expands the application space of the theory while verifying the role of vigor traits in students’ leadership behavior. On the other hand, it confirms the nurturing effect of innovation and entrepreneurship competitions in leadership and points out the direction of optimizing the quality of innovation and entrepreneurship education.

Drawing upon the natural resource-based view (NRBV), organizational learning (OL) and contingency theories, this paper aims to develop and test a theoretical framework that examines the impact of green inclusive leadership on green innovation in business-to-business (B2B) context. This framework further examines the simple and serial mediation of green knowledge acquisition and sharing and the moderation of internal corporate social responsibility(CSR) communication.

Using survey questionnaires, authors collected multiwave data from 215 middle managers from different manufacturing and production organizations operating in Pakistan. The hypotheses were inspected using the PROCESS macro.

According to the findings, green inclusive leadership and green innovation are positively associated, and green knowledge acquisition and green knowledge sharing are efficient serial mediators of this relationship. Furthermore, the results suggest that internal CSR communication moderates the serial mediation such that the indirect relationship between green inclusive leadership and green innovation was stronger at high levels of internal CSR communication rather than at lower levels.

This research offers implications for manufacturing industry leaders and policymakers. Green inclusive leadership nurtures green knowledge dynamics, making it vital for achieving United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and promoting ecological stewardship. Investing in green knowledge processes and transparent internal CSR communication can enhance sustainable innovation and align with broader sustainability goals in organizations predominantly operating under the B2B model.

By merging NRBV, OL and contingency theories and drawing links across different genres of literature, this study provides unique insight into leadership, knowledge management, corporate communication, sustainability and CSR and innovation in the B2B sector.

In the highly competitive sector of state-owned enterprises in Indonesia, particularly within the electricity group, innovation is crucial for sustainability and growth. This study investigates the impact of transformational leadership and knowledge management on innovation performance, emphasizing the mediating role of innovation capability.

Employing a quantitative approach, this research focuses on the upper management of 11 companies, gathering data from 196 out of 280 surveyed individuals through structured questionnaires. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized for analysis.

Our analysis reveals a dual role of transformational leadership; while it significantly enhances innovation capability, it unexpectedly detracts from innovation performance. Conversely, knowledge management boosts both innovation capability and performance. Significantly, innovation capability serves as a crucial mediator, amplifying the effects of both transformational leadership and knowledge management on innovation performance. These results highlight complex interdependencies within organizational leadership and knowledge frameworks.

These findings can guide organizations in refining leadership and knowledge management strategies to bolster innovation. By enhancing transformational leadership skills, implementing robust knowledge management systems and fostering innovation capabilities, companies can better navigate the complexities of the modern market. The adaptation of these strategies should consider specific organizational cultures and market dynamics to optimize performance.

This research extends the resource-based view (RBV) by detailing the interplay between key organizational variables, offering fresh insights into their collective impact on innovation within the context of state-owned enterprises in Indonesia.