IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/syd/wpaper/2015-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Leadership, communication and innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Bel, Roland
  • Smirnov, Vladimir
  • Wait, Andrew

Abstract

We study the interplay between communication, leadership attributes and the probability of successful innovation. Although a firm requires both strong leadership and sufficient communication to overcome inertia, we posit that frequent communication – particularly amongst strong managers and in larger firms – can cause leaders to pull the firm in different directions, resulting in disagreement and a failure to successfully innovate. Using a uniquely detailed establishment-level data set we find that, on their own, firm size, regular communication and result-oriented leadership are all positively associated with innovation. However, as predicted by our model, the use of frequent communication in successfully innovating firms is moderated: (i) when leaders tend to be strongly focussed on results; and (ii) in larger firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Bel, Roland & Smirnov, Vladimir & Wait, Andrew, 2015. "Leadership, communication and innovation," Working Papers 2015-22, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:syd:wpaper:2015-22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://econ-wpseries.com/2015/201522.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yongmin Chen & Marius Schwartz, 2013. "Product Innovation Incentives: Monopoly vs. Competition," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 513-528, September.
    2. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    3. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Measuring and Explaining Management Practices Across Firms and Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1351-1408.
    4. Stephen K. Markham, 2000. "Corporate Championing and Antagonism as Forms of Political Behavior: An R&D Perspective," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 429-447, August.
    5. Michael L. Tushman & Ralph Katz, 1980. "External Communication and Project Performance: An Investigation into the Role of Gatekeepers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(11), pages 1071-1085, November.
    6. Timothy F. Bresnahan & Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin M. Hitt, 2002. "Information Technology, Workplace Organization, and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 339-376.
    7. Robert Gibbons & John Roberts, 2012. "The Handbook of Organizational Economics," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 9889.
    8. Eve Caroli & John Van Reenen, 2001. "Skill-Biased Organizational Change? Evidence from A Panel of British and French Establishments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(4), pages 1449-1492.
    9. Giuseppe De Luca, 2008. "SNP and SML estimation of univariate and bivariate binary-choice models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 8(2), pages 190-220, June.
    10. repec:dau:papers:123456789/10093 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Gallant, A Ronald & Nychka, Douglas W, 1987. "Semi-nonparametric Maximum Likelihood Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(2), pages 363-390, March.
    12. Wouter Dessein & Tano Santos, 2006. "Adaptive Organizations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(5), pages 956-985, October.
    13. Filippo Belloc, 2012. "Corporate Governance And Innovation: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 835-864, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bel, By Roland & Smirnov, Vladimir & Wait, Andrew, 2018. "Managing change: Communication, managerial style and change in organizations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-12.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bel, By Roland & Smirnov, Vladimir & Wait, Andrew, 2018. "Managing change: Communication, managerial style and change in organizations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-12.
    2. Phillipe Aghion & Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2014. "Incomplete Contracts and the Internal Organization of Firms," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 30(suppl_1), pages 37-63.
    3. Nicholas Bloom & Luis Garicano & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2014. "The Distinct Effects of Information Technology and Communication Technology on Firm Organization," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(12), pages 2859-2885, December.
    4. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2012. "Americans Do IT Better: US Multinationals and the Productivity Miracle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 167-201, February.
    5. Luigi Benfratello & Tiziano Razzolini & Alessandro Sembenelli, 2009. "Does ICT Investment Spur or Hamper Offshoring? Empirical Evidence from Microdata," Working papers 05, Former Department of Economics and Public Finance "G. Prato", University of Torino.
    6. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun, 2012. "The Organization of Firms Across Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(4), pages 1663-1705.
    7. David J. Deming, 2017. "The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1593-1640.
    8. Fibla Gasparín, Ma. Teresa, 2010. "Productivity in southern European small firms: When and how work organization complements process innovation," Working Papers 2072/179600, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    9. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2010. "Does Product Market Competition Lead Firms to Decentralize?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 434-438, May.
    10. Elisa Gerten & Michael Beckmann & Elisa Gerten & Matthias Kräkel, 2022. "Information and Communication Technology, Hierarchy, and Job Design," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 189, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    11. Erik Brynjolfsson & Wang Jin & Kristina McElheran, 2021. "The power of prediction: predictive analytics, workplace complements, and business performance," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 56(4), pages 217-239, October.
    12. Annika Campaner & John S. Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn, 2022. "Flexible work organization and employer provided training: Evidence from German linked employer‐employee data," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(1), pages 3-29, February.
    13. Snower, Dennis J. & Görlich, Dennis, 2013. "Multitasking and Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 7426, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Anna Valero, 2021. "Education and management practices," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 37(2), pages 302-322.
    15. Sergey Alexeev, 2023. "Technical change and wage premiums amongst skilled labour: Evidence from the economic transition," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 189-216, January.
    16. Ludivine Martin, 2020. "How to retain motivated employees in their jobs?," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 41(4), pages 910-953, November.
    17. Bloom, Nicholas & Brynjolfsson, Erik & Foster, Lucia & Jarmin, Ron & Patnaik, Megha & Saporta-Eksten, Itay & Van Reenen, John, 2014. "IT and management in America," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60267, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Isabel Maria Bodas Freitas, 2011. "Technological learning environments and organizational practices--cross-sectoral evidence from Britain," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 20(5), pages 1439-1474, October.
    19. Sivropoulos-Valero, Anna Valero, 2021. "Education and management practices," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114436, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Ari Bronsoler & Joseph J. Doyle Jr. & John Van Reenen, 2021. "The Impact of Healthcare IT on Clinical Quality, Productivity and Workers," NBER Working Papers 29218, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Innovation; Communication; Leadership: Inertia;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:syd:wpaper:2015-22. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Vanessa Holcombe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deusyau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.