Knowledge-oriented leadership and technology standard innovation: a temporary-team perspective

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the relevance of knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) to technology standard innovation (TSI) from a temporary-team perspective. The mediating and moderating effect on knowledge integration (KI) and leader–member exchange (LMX) is emphasized. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual model is built based on an exhaustive literature review and is empirically tested in terms of a sample of 341 Chinese individuals with TSI experience. Quantitative analysis was performed using a questionnaire with the bootstrapping method used to demonstrate the mediating effect of KI. Findings The empirical results of this study prove that KI mediates the relationship between KOL and TSI. The authors deduce that LMX moderates the positive relation between KOL and KI. Originality/value Few studies have investigated the innovation activities of technology standards from a temporary-team perspective. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to look into the underlying mechanism of KOL in TSI. This research deepens the analysis by introducing LMX’s moderating role in the innovation process of technology standards, thereby providing valuable insights for leaders of innovation activities of technology standards and illuminating new aspects of knowledge-intensive temporary-team management.

Knowledge-oriented leadership and learning in academic research teams

“…Our findings align with extant studies corroborating that KOL had the potential to influence knowledge sharing within teams (Donate and de Pablo, 2015;Lati et al, 2020a;Shamim et al, 2019;Shariq et al, 2019). In this line, most of the studies have placed knowledge management practices as a mediator between KOL and innovation (Donate and de Pablo, 2015;Donate and Guadamillas, 2011;Jiang et al, 2021;Naqshbandi and Jasimuddin, 2018;Zia, 2020), or performance (Latif et al, 2020a;Rehman and Iqbal, 2020), but no study has analyzed the potential role of knowledge sharing between KOL and learning. Only one prior study modeled the relationship between KOL and learning (Men and Jia, 2021).…”

“…Therefore, it is not surprising that there has been a proliferation of studies aiming at better understanding the effects of KOL on outcomes which have been carried out across different contexts including hospitality (Shamim et al, 2019;Donate et al, 2022), technology firms (Donate and de Pablo, 2015;Donate and Guadamillas, 2011;Zia, 2020), pharmaceutical companies (Shariq et al, 2019) and SMEs (Zia, 2020). The findings have supported the positive effects of KOL on innovation (Donate and de Pablo, 2015;Naqshbandi and Jasimuddin, 2018;Sadeghi and Rad, 2018), creativity (Men and Jia, 2021), knowledge management (Jiang et al, 2021;Latif et al, 2020a;Shamim et al, 2019;Zia, 2020), learning orientation (Shariq et al, 2019) and organizational performance (Alneadi et al, 2020;Rehman and Iqbal, 2020). However, despite the assumption that KOL encourages intellectual stimulation and promotes a learning culture within teams, further studies are needed to empirically analyze how this type of leadership can stimulate learning within teams in R&D contexts.…”

Exploring the Nexus Between Knowledge-Oriented Leadership and Employees’ Innovative Behaviour in SMEs: The Moderating Role of Organisational Learning Culture

“…Individuals are the driving force behind all innovation, and their attitudes and behaviours are crucial to the continuity of competition and inventiveness of organisations (Aboobaker and KA, 2021). Recent research has explored the indirect links between knowledge-oriented leadership and innovation (Donate et al, 2022;Jiang et al, 2021;Shehzad et al, 2021) and the link between organisational learning culture and organisational innovation (Cui et al, 2022;Khan et al, 2021). However, the direct link between knowledge-oriented leadership and employees' innovative behaviour has not yet been examined (Latif et al, 2021).…”

“…The term KOL refers to an attitude or action that promotes the production, exchange of new information, and application of new information in a way that results in a shift in collective outcomes (Naqshbandi and Jasimuddin, 2018). Furthermore, KOL refers to the processes of knowledge-sharing and creative learning, which is based on personal knowledge literacy and learning capacity, promoting knowledgesharing and innovative learning by offering example KM behaviours that build a positive organisational learning atmosphere and culture (Jiang et al, 2021). Essentially, a knowledgeoriented leader should serve as an example; they should encourage learning by intellectually inspiring and empowering followers, institutionalising learning through the provision of incentives and training, developing a learning culture that tolerates errors, fostering discipline, and developing knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer, and knowledge application mechanisms (Latif et al, 2021: Naqshbandi andJasimuddin, 2018).…”

“…This research will contribute to the body of present knowledge in multiple ways. Firstly, the present study is one of the few that has been conducted on KOL as a new research area that requires more attention (Gurlek and Cemberci, 2020;Jiang et al, 2021;Shamim et al, 2019). Ergo, the study will address that there is a significant gap in the search for leadership qualities that foster innovation among employees.…”