LEADERSHIP AND GREEN INNOVATION ADOPTION: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

The accelerating urgency of climate change has made green innovation a strategic imperative. Defined as the design, development, and implementation of sustainable products, processes, and practices, green innovation enables firms to combine environmental stewardship with competitive advantage. Leadership has emerged as a critical enabler, guiding organizations toward proactive sustainability strategies and innovation adoption. This systematic review, conducted in line with PRISMA 2020 guidelines, analyzed thirty peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2025. The synthesis addresses three guiding research questions. First, leadership styles--including entrepreneurial, transformational, servant, ethical, and authentic--differentially influence adoption by reframing environmental challenges, motivating pro-environmental behavior, and fostering long-term responsibility. Second, mediating and moderating mechanisms such as organizational learning, dynamic capabilities, absorptive capacity, strategic flexibility, and institutional conditions explain how leadership intent translates into innovation outcomes and why effects vary across contexts. Third, theoretical frameworks including the Resource-Based View, Dynamic Capabilities Theory, and Upper Echelons Theory clarify how leadership shapes sustainability transitions, though integration across levels remains limited. This review advances understanding of leadership's role in green innovation and identifies gaps for future research, including the need for longitudinal, multi-level, and cross-cultural studies. Practically, the findings highlight the importance of embedding sustainability in leadership development, governance systems, and policy ecosystems. Overall, leadership emerges as a strategic asset for enabling green innovation adoption and advancing organizational and societal sustainability transitions.