Leadership Style and Sustainable Innovation Adoption: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Abstract

Leadership style and adoption of sustainable innovation have been the focus of many research studies during the last two decades. There are an increasing number of primary research studies and traditional literature reviews on the subject. Both management researchers and practitioners argue that leadership style plays a key role in sustainable innovation adoption. However, there is no collective body of evidence examining this relationship. This paper is a systematic review of the literature on the relationship between leadership style and sustainable innovation adoption. A thematic analysis of 15 studies randomly selected from a sampling frame of 100 screened and qualified research papers was performed. The analysis revealed that sustainable, strategic, transformational, and transactional leadership are the leadership styles most commonly associated with sustainable innovation adoption, and that strategic and transformational leadership are components of sustainable leadership. The review also found that there are certain factors that moderate the relationship between leadership style and sustainable innovation adoption. These factors include stakeholder engagement, leadership commitment, knowledge management, and organizational culture. In light of these findings, a theoretical framework was proposed, implications for practitioners were defined, and an agenda for future research was provided.

Keywords

• leadership style
• leader behavior
• sustainability
• sustainable innovation adoption

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