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This chapter examines different dimensions of leadership communication that promote creativity and innovativeness. It explores how leaders engage and inspire their subordinates on the one hand and how they motivate, challenge and encourage them on the other. The aim is to provide a multifaceted description of how leaders use communication to promote innovativeness in organisations. The chapter draws on the ‘wheel of leadership communication on innovations’ by Zerfass and Huck (2007). The wheel examines communication based on cognitive, affective, conative and social dimensions. The other key concepts of the study are transformational and communicative leadership. The approach is qualitative, and the data derive from interviews with leaders of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The findings suggest that to promote organisational innovativeness all four dimensions – cognitive, affective, conative and social – must be taken into account. Multidimensional skills are required of leaders who are expected to master different communicational roles and to act as enablers, engagers, motivators and supporters at the same time. This calls for emotional and social sensibility, flexibility and adaptability to different people and situations. Leadership communication is crucial for innovation management because creative thinking and commitment enable innovation. Therefore, in the business context, attention must be paid to how people are inspired, supported and motivated, as well as to open communication. The main limitations of the study are that it focuses only on SMEs and that it does not include the voices of personnel, which would have added value to the managerial perspectives.

Innovation competence has become an essential requirement for technology-based organizations to survive in the new economy. Commitment to long-term objectives and learning are considered as indispensable for building innovation competence. Communication networks play a crucial role in both these aspects. In this context management faces the question of how the characteristics as well as the contents of communication present in the network will influence the innovation competence. In this paper a literature study is done to present an understanding of the relationships between communication networks and innovation competence. The paper proposes that the characteristics of communication (frequency, diversity, and centrality) along with the content of communication (shared vision, shared task knowledge, and shared social knowledge) significantly affect the elements necessary to build technological innovation.

European industry, academia and potential end users for future solutions are widely involved in applying for European Union (EU) funding of research and innovation and implementation of the projects. Funding instrument requirements emphasise the influence of skills and know-how of these project consortia professionals. This chapter proposes a co-creative model for communication and dissemination, or project PR, based on the experiences of both planning and coordinating dissemination activities of three EU funded projects. Multidisciplinary international project Public Relations (PR) offers strategic opportunities for PR professionals.

The model employs the co-creation methods based on the pedagogical model called Learning by Developing (Laurea, 2011). In addition to the pedagogical model, the proposed conceptualisation of co-creation for public relations and dissemination utilises a media evaluation framework, which is adapted from Vos and Schoemaker’s model (2004), combining elements of both balanced scorecard and quality management.

The findings demonstrate that commitment and active participation of end-user groups in the early stage of the project are needed for successful dissemination, which should be supported by each partner’s PR actions and networks. The dissemination process should start when the project begins, be ongoing, even extending to beyond the project. Dissemination is an expanding process, and it requires facilitation that supports PR and the engagement of key stakeholders. The European Commission can gain from modernised PR and dissemination activities, and from as many end users as possible adopting new innovations, which generate more business possibilities for the industry, and further research projects for the academia.

The COVID-19 crisis has jolted the hotel landscape profoundly and sector's usual resistance to innovative efforts is gone. Ecologically innovative (green) hotels are now expected to set the benchmark in protecting the environment and mitigating human health hazards. The need for this study stems from the fact that eco-innovative (green) hotels need not only be established and promoted, but also accepted or adopted by guests. Existing studies have mostly relied on customer's pro-environmental attitude, knowledge, and a selective list of green hotel attributes in order to predict green hotel visit intentions. The objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive list of environmental and human health attributes that are likely to influence guest's decision to visit a green hotel. One of the first studies to utilize the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory in sustainable hospitality research, this qualitative study identifies 27 key green hotel's perceived attributes. Examining the guest's expected green hotel attributes would help managers make their green efforts more effective and attract potential guests who have not yet stayed at green hotels.

The main purpose of this study is to see the effects of Information Communication Technology (ICT) on a firm's innovation performance in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The objective of this study is twofold: First, it aims to analyze the impact of ICT applications on firms' innovative behavior and whether firms using ICT applications more intensively are also more innovative. Second, and more essentially, it assesses empirically the impact of ICT applications on firms' innovative performance in sub-Saharan African countries by using instrumental variable probit model. Therefore, we used data from the 2013 enterprise survey (Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS)). According to our results, the most important ICT tools are emails and using the internet for online sales. Firms who have IT Teams are not creating any difference; however, if a firm purchase or develop in-house any software then they are more likely to produce innovation than the other firms.

In some organizations action is taken to stimulate creativity and innovation. The right steps may have been taken, such as involving employees in decision making, recruiting and appointing employees who evidence characteristics of creativity, setting standards for work performance and giving regular feedback, yet creativity and innovation are hampered in some way. The culture of an organization may be a factor contributing to the extent to which creativity and innovation occur in an organization (Johnson, 1996; Judge et al., 1997; Pienaar, 1994; Shaughnessy, 1988; Tesluk et al., 1997; Tushman & O’Reilly, 1997 in Martins & Terblanche, 2003). The current organizational culture and the demands of creativity and innovation may lead to a conflict situation.

This chapter establishes the conceptual and analytic framework for the book. It relates not only to much of the existing work in evolutionary and institutional economics, but also to work in cultural science and cultural semiotics domains as well as in media convergence and transmedia studies. The central concept it first deploys is ‘innovation systems’ as applied in national, regional, international and sectoral contexts. It then builds on the general theory of economic evolution by Kurt Dopfer and Jason Potts and reviews the tools this theory provides to carry out a meso-level analysis of industries co-innovating and converging. It then proposes a new concept – ‘cross-innovation’ – to refer to the emergence of new structures and ‘rules’ at the boundaries of existing industries.

Teams are an important component to the success of corporate innovation and entrepreneurship. However, innovation teams often suffer because management fails to develop a change strategy and prepare managers and participants to work in teams. This chapter provides a discussion of the critical elements needed to prepare team member, including reviewing the team development process and offering insights on how to manage communication, conflict resolution, creative problem solving, and decision-making to enhance team performance. Additionally, research on the use of innovation teams is presented along with some recommendations for management to implement innovation teams in organizations.

In this information era, innovation is among the most important factors for an organization to increase its performance. In this chapter, it is explored how to improve the business innovation in organizations effectively by using suitable management strategies in an emerging economy selected as Turkey. Among many strategies set and implemented for the ease of innovation, in this chapter, it is revealed that some have more direct and efficient effects. Among these strategies and practices there exist, strategic and innovative human resource management, goal setting for innovation, supporting employee creativity, empowering employees for innovation, developing effective organizational communication, leading for innovation, building an innovative organizational culture and establishing teams for innovation. These practices are derived from the selected Borsa Istanbul (BIST) Companies in Turkey. Strategies of five companies which are indexed in BIST30 and BIST Sustainability Index, and additionally, which are all candidates of innovation leader in their sector, were taken as examples reflecting the innovative atmosphere in Turkey.

This chapter presents results from initial studies on personal certifications of innovation management professionals, drawing from a Swedish context. The results capture motivations for, as well as effects from, the certification process. They are discussed from the perspective of how this is relevant for developing and enhancing innovation leadership competencies. Increased knowledge, enhanced professional communication, and strengthened self-confidence related to innovation management were identified as outcomes for individuals pursuing the certifications. Further, this laid the ground for increased visibility, expanded network, and thus more opportunities to influence innovation work. An overarching theme appearing in the study is how a certification can contribute to strengthening the legitimacy of working with innovation management, and thus serve as an enabler for innovation management practice and subsequently innovation leadership. Effects from the certification that may be beneficial for successful innovation leadership include the opportunity for practitioners to articulate their own experiences and competencies, in addition to improving the impact of their efforts utilising innovation terminology. For organisations, knowledge of personal certification can be used both for recruitment and for development of existing personnel and their innovation leadership. Through a longer perspective, it can also contribute to decreasing the dependence on a few specific individuals and instead strengthen the long-term organisational innovation capabilities.