Title: The importance of innovation leadership in cultivating firm innovation and enhancing firm performance in Vietnam tourism industry

Authors: Xuan-Nhi Nguyen; Nhu-Thao Dang; Ngoc-Tien Le; Quoc-Hai Pham

Addresses: Faculty of Business Administration, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Vietnam ' Faculty of Creative Communications, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Vietnam ' Faculty of Business Administration, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Vietnam ' Faculty of Economics, Ho Chi Minh University of Economics and Finance, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Vietnam

Abstract: The study focuses on investigating the relationship between innovative leadership style, dimensions of innovation, and organisational performance of the tourism industry in Vietnam. This study employs a mixed-method exploratory approach to understand the impact of dual leadership styles on tourism and destination enterprises' performance, using ambidexterity theory as a theoretical foundation. The qualitative phase identifies six key elements of innovative capability: technology, process, organisational, service, product, and marketing innovation. Afterwards, findings from quantitative analysis of a dataset of 348 Vietnamese firms in the tourism industry reveal that the innovative leadership style has a positive effect on the five components of innovative capability; however, process innovation has a negative effect on organisational performance. This study contributes to the innovation literature and that managers should adaptively achieve goals through means of balancing control and innovation to gain desirable performance in the tourism industry.

Keywords: innovation; leadership; ambidexterity; process; organisational performance; service; product; marketing; tourism; Vietnam.

DOI: 10.1504/JGBA.2023.141423

Journal for Global Business Advancement, 2023 Vol.16 No.4, pp.499 - 532

Received: 24 Apr 2024
Accepted: 19 May 2024
Published online: 12 Sep 2024 *

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