Gaining Strategic Advantage through Social and Technological Innovation

In this chapter, innovation, one of the most important factors for contemporary organizations and even countries, is analyzed in depth. The concept of innovation is divided into two major fields, which are social innovation and technological innovation. The relationship between these two innovation types and gaining strategic advantage are figured out in a macro perspective. To achieve this, the strongest innovators in Europe were selected. Among them are Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Germany, and Norway. To compare the countries, Social Innovation Index and European Innovation Scoreboard were employed to get secondary data. It was observed that by investing more on social and technological innovation, these European countries perform better and gain strategic advantage, which helps them build sustainable future.

Explaining the Interaction Between Leader Ambidextrous Behavior, Employee Ambidexterity, and Organizational Ambidexterity

The aim of the study is to examine the relationships between ambidextrous leadership behaviors (i.e., task-oriented, relation-oriented, change-oriented, and external) in the context of leader behavior level and employee ambidextrous performance (i.e., exploitation and exploration) in the context of individual employee level by suggesting that the interaction of these two may result in organizational ambidexterity. This study aims to contribute to the immature ambidexterity literature by developing some propositions based on the previous ambidexterity researches related to ambidexterity of leaders, employees, and entire organizations. Taking into account ambidextrous leadership theory, it is proposed that while the leaders' task-oriented and relation-oriented behaviors are positively related to the employees' exploitation behaviors, the leaders' change-oriented and external behaviors are positively related to the employees' exploration behaviors. It is recommended for further studies to investigate the possible propositions with quantitative research designs.

Building Theories-in-Practice on Social Innovation in Disability Nonprofit Organizations

This chapter discusses the key theoretical and empirical steps undertaken throughout the authors' previous-but-related mixed methods studies on social innovation in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in the Australian disability sector with the aim of using the key findings of these studies to develop ‘theories-in-practice' in disability NPOs. In this chapter, the authors summarize the associated theory-building processes deployed to explain how disability NPOs develop and implement social innovations and the societal ‘system-level' impacts of such innovations. These theory-building processes involve two broad phases, and the culmination of these phases (grounded in the abductive logics of inquiry, complexity theorizing, and set-theoretic methods) leads to the development of several ‘theories-to-practice' that not only convey the interactivity of contextual causal mechanisms leading to social innovation by NPOs, but also outline change-oriented solutions for managers who are working to address complex social challenges.

Autocratic, Transactional, and Servant Leadership in Japan, France, and Mexico

A theoretical study was conducted based on three different leadership styles: autocratic, transactional, and servant. The most relevant characteristics of each leadership style were summarized. A cross-culture study was proposed considering three countries from diverse clusters according to the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness Project (GLOBE). Each culture was analyzed separately, and relevant statistics were presented as elements for comparison. Different models and tools to evaluate cultural differences were used to create a multiple perspectives overview. Information from the three leadership styles was used to further determine whether those styles fit the cultural descriptions in order to establish the most frequent and suitable leadership styles in the selected countries and to understand how leadership styles can vary from region to region.

Leadership for Sustainability: Connecting Corporate Responsibility Reporting and Strategy

This chapter describes how and why normative justification for corporate responsibility has been replaced with business case thinking. Modern organizations do link their non-financial reports to strategy because corporate responsibility is seen as a source of competitive advantage, growth, motivation, and innovation. Non-financial reporting potentiates companies to understand, learn, and redefine their social and environmental impacts and its cost; how to minimize both impact and cost; and how to capitalize on challenges that management face on a daily basis. The connection between CR strategy and non-financial reporting is described along with how it is relevant for the successful business of modern organizations. By improving CR strategies and developing unique non-financial reporting, organizations can be more effective and efficient in the local community, which will positively reflect on their business model and in achieving higher sustainability levels.

Developing Strategic Leadership and Innovation Capability for Manufacturing SMEs Transitioning to Digital Manufacturing Technology

Strategic leadership and the development of innovation capability is of critical importance for product design and manufacturing as emerging digital technologies increasingly challenge conventional practice. This chapter presents research intended to provide manufacturing SMEs and product designers with an understanding of the complexities associated with the introduction of advanced manufacturing technologies as part of the transition to Industry 4.0. An included case study describes a university-industry collaboration design project articulating product designs role in developing strategic leadership and innovation capability for SMEs in an era of digitalisation. The chapter provides tangible ways forward for manufacturing SMEs transitioning to additive manufacturing (AM) technology, operationalising a combination of theoretical positions proposed in academic discourse. These include the need to adopt empowering leadership styles, the value of collective entrepreneurship, and the nature of creative process engagement for the generation of ideas and alternatives for AM transition.

Authentic Leadership, Leader Optimism, and Follower Affective Commitment

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of authentic leadership together with the leader emotional expressivity of optimism on follower affective commitment towards the organization. This study was undertaken in the format of an experiment that is followed by a survey in which four groups of different fictional leader types were created, and respondents were asked to answer questions about their self-rated potential affective commitment towards the organization with the assumption that the respondents were actually working with the described leader. The findings of this study reveal that both authentic and inauthentic leaders who display optimism arouse higher levels of affective comitment by their followers as compared to their non-optimistic counterparts.

The Psychological Capital

The psychological capital concept, which refers to developmental positive states of human beings, has proven to be important for organizations in order to gain competitive advantage. Thus, in this study, a brief discussion has been made in order to provide a better understanding of the desired organizational outcomes of this concept and its role in the authentic leadership and organizational commitment behavior of employees. It has been stated that under authentic leadership style, followers with low psychological capital are thought to be more inclined to show organizational commitment than their peers with high psychological capital.

What Does It Take to Be a Social Entrepreneur?

Contemporary society is characterized by the prevalence of wicked problems to which the efforts and actions of some entrepreneurs have negatively contributed to social problems. Corporate social responsibility emerged as an early response to multi-factor problems that are difficult to conceptualize or structure, but it has had limited success in engendering significant structural societal change. Social entrepreneurship is a contested construct that typically includes the social entrepreneur. A definition of social entrepreneurs is provided drawing on the literature. Social entrepreneurs offer leadership for social innovation outcomes as an antidote to prevailing social issues. This contributes to the literature on social entrepreneurs by examining how social entrepreneurs lead in the digital era. Importantly, this chapter considers the role that authentic leader behaviors (awareness, sincerity, balanced processing, positive moral perspectives, and informal influence) has in enabling social entrepreneurs to create and innovate.

Social Entrepreneurs as Servant Leaders

This chapter critically examines the servant leadership style of social entrepreneurs. Qualitative data from social enterprises in Palestine and Lukes third dimension power framework are used to explore the intricate forces of power, manipulation, and domination hidden within the service and follower-oriented model of servant leadership. Insights are provided on how the concept of ‘service', the focal aspect in both social enterprises and servant leadership, could be another facet of soft and insidious power exercised by the social entrepreneurs over their followers. A political model of servant leadership is developed that demonstrates how social entrepreneurs could be imposing power and control over their followers under the guise of social mission, creation of social value, serving and empowering their followers and the community.