How ethical leadership cultivates radical and incremental innovation: the mediating role of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of ethical leadership on radical and incremental innovation through the mediating roles of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing (KS).

Design/methodology/approach

The paper used a quantitative research method and structural equation modeling to test the research hypotheses based on a sample of 365 participants from 115 Vietnamese firms.

Findings

The results indicated that ethical leadership is positively related to radical and incremental innovation. In addition, tacit and explicit KS significantly mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and the two types of innovation.

Research limitations/implications

This study is cross-sectional, which limits its ability to control the specific features of the correlations among the factors in the long term.

Practical implications

The findings of this study suggest that leaders should invest in practicing and applying a moral lens to motivate positive KS behaviors of employees and organizational capabilities for innovation.

Originality/value

This study significantly fills gaps in the literature and advances the understanding of how ethical leadership fosters employees’ KS to improve radical and incremental innovation.

Citation

Lei, H., Ha, A.T.L. and Le, P.B. (2020), "How ethical leadership cultivates radical and incremental innovation: the mediating role of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 35 No. 5, pp. 849-862. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-05-2019-0180