Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of leader humility in firm innovativeness. The study highlights the importance of promoting altruism within organizations as a mechanism that may explain why leader humility fosters innovation. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted in a sample frame of 11,594 Spanish companies. In total, 568 valid questionnaires were obtained and 284 different companies participated in the study. Structural equations were used to validate the proposed hypotheses. Findings All the hypotheses proposed in the conceptual model were confirmed. Results provide empirical evidence of the positive relationship between leader humility and firm innovativeness, as well as the mediating role played by altruism. In other words, leader humility promotes altruism and, in turn, firm innovativeness. Research limitations/implications The sample of companies is heterogeneous in terms of firm turnover, size, export ratio and age. The study is focused on firm innovativeness and only studies altruism as a mediating variable in the relationship between leader humility and firm innovativeness. Practical implications The present study provides some guidelines which may help companies to improve their competitiveness, enhancing workplace conditions. Originality/value There are few empirical studies that analyze the effect of humble leaders or leader humility on innovation. The main value of the present research is to further the current knowledge of this relationship by disentangling the mediating effect of altruism within organizations.

Findings. Results suggest that organizational learning capability fully mediates the relationship between altruistic leader behavior and radical innovation. Research limitations/implications. The database used in the study is very heterogeneous.Future research might delimit the database by organization size or sector. Practical implications. Results suggest ideas for organizations that want to implement a working environment that fosters innovation performance in order to achieve radical innovationsOriginality/value. This is one of the few studies to concentrate on altruistic leader behaviors as such. This paper contributes to understanding how altruistic leader behavior affects radical innovation and the key role played by organizational learning capability.

As stated by previous researchers, in an increasingly competitive environment, organizations need to develop successful innovations to compete and survive in the long term. Furthermore, sustainability and social issues are gaining increasing importance, to the extent that they are now a matter of high concern for firms and for society. Therefore, organizations cannot improve their results at any price and must be responsible for the consequences of their activities, including innovation. In these conditions, a growing demand for new leadership styles and behaviors arises to face this complex context. Stewardship is a leadership behavior that shows great concern for the impact of the organization's activity on society. A quantitative study has been conducted with the purpose of providing empirical evidence of the relationship between leaders' stewardship behavior and innovation success, using radical innovation as an explanatory variable. To confirm the hypotheses, structural equations were used on a dataset from a sample of 300 questionnaires from Spanish companies. The study empirically validates the proposed conceptual model. Results show how radical innovation fully mediates the relationship between leaders' stewardship behavior and innovation success.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of the relationship between end-user computing satisfaction (EUCS) and radical innovation, using organizational learning as an explanatory variable. Design/methodology/approach An empirical study was conducted in a population of 402 Spanish companies. A sample of 251 valid questionnaires was obtained. Structural equations were used to validate the proposed hypotheses. Findings Organizational learning capability fully mediates the relationship between EUCS and radical innovation. Research limitations/implications The sample of companies is heterogeneous in terms of size, sector, age and market share. The study uses single informants. Practical implications Results highlight the need to implement adequate information systems to promote radical innovation. In addition, it is necessary to facilitate organizational contexts that encourage dialogue, experimentation, risk-taking, participative decision-making and openness to the external environment. Originality/value This research contributes to the study of alternative antecedents of radical innovation by highlighting the importance of EUCS.

PurposeBased on the upper echelons and organisational identification theories, this paper focuses on the relationship between servant leadership and firm innovativeness, as well as the underlying mechanisms that explain this relationship. More specifically, we analyse the relationship between servant leadership, firm innovativeness and corporate social responsibility to employees (CSRE).Design/methodology/approachA total of 285 Spanish firms took part in the study, and 570 questionnaires were gathered. Structural equation modelling was used to validate the proposed hypotheses.FindingsResults suggest that servant leadership has a positive relationship with firm innovativeness, and this relationship is fully mediated by CSRE.Research limitations/implicationsHR managers have an overall view of their company and of the behaviour of other leaders. However, future research should also consider employees perceptions. The present study is cross-sectional, and it would be interesting to study the development of the interaction between leaders and followers, which calls for longitudinal and multilevel studies.Practical implicationsAccording to our results, managers could foster firm innovativeness if they select and promote leaders who display the different leadership behaviours related to servant leadership: empowerment, servitude, accountability, courage, authenticity, humility and stewardship. Moreover, training programmes should also foster these behaviours.Originality/valueFew empirical studies analyse the relationship between servant leadership and innovation. The main contribution of the present research is to further the current knowledge of this relationship by disentangling the mediating role of corporate social responsibility to employees.