The importance of innovation leadership in cultivating strategic fit and enhancing firm performance

This study examines the importance of innovation leadership in cultivating the strategic fit of an organization with its environment, and enhancing various economic, relationship, and product performance outcomes. It thus explores how innovation leadership enables a firm to change and adapt to its external environment and by implication enhance its performance. The results of data collected from 117 firms show that innovation leadership, both directly and through increased strategic fit, significantly enhances firm performance. Implications for research on strategic and innovation leadership and adaptive organizational systems are discussed.