The Impact of Leadership Style on Corporate Innovation: Survey from Telecommunication Industry in Somalia

Abstract
Corporate Innovation has become a prime source of succeeding and sustaining a competitive advantage in
the telecommunication industry. While a large research body addresses the question of corporate
innovation projects, a firm´s overall innovation with relation to the corporate leadership has received much
less attention. Should innovations be driven by corporate directors and a close relation to leadership style?.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of leadership styles on corporate innovation in
telecommunication industry in Somalia. The main objective of this paper was to investigate the relationship
between leadership styles and corporate innovation dimensions among Telecommunication companies in
Mogadishu-Somalia. Particularly, the study investigates the effect of 1) Transactional Leadership Style, 2)
Transformational leadership Style; and 3) Laissez-faire leadership style on corporate innovation. By using
purposive sampling, 142 top and supervisory level managers from telecommunication industry in Somalia
participated in the study. The findings indicate that Transformational leadership (β= .485, t= 6.571, p<.001)
, transactional leadership style (β=.262, t= 3.263, p<.001) and Laizes Faire leadership styles (β= .463, t=
6.211, p<.001) were found to have statistically significant and positive effect on firm innovation.