Innovation-as-Practice: Examining The Relationship Between Leaders' Espoused And Enacted Innovation, And Innovation Outcomes And Firm Performance

Innovation is widely regarded as a critical source of competitive advantage in an increasingly changing environment and thus has attracted considerable attention from both academics and practitioners. While thousands of scholarly papers have been published, the field remains theoretically fragmented and largely disconnected from the indexes and rankings of the practitioner world. Despite the abundance of measures of various elements of innovation, their relative importance has not been established and their connection with performance remains underexplored. Although the importance of leaders' support and guidance in promoting innovative efforts and creating conditions for the subsequent implementation of innovation has been highlighted, no research has established a clear connection between espoused innovation leadership, its implemented version (enacted innovation), and performance.