Leadership, green innovation, and green creativity: a systematic review

Conceptual and empirical progress have failed to keep up with growing industry interest in leadership, green innovation, and green creativity in the service industries. The purpose of this study is to address this gap by reviewing the literature on the relationship between leadership and green innovation/creativity. A total of 65 studies indexed in the Scopus database are analyzed. A systematic review and thematic analysis are performed utilizing Leximancer mixed analysis software. Descriptive findings are provided under eight categories: (1) studies by journal, (2) by method, (3) by time, (4) by country, (5) correlations between leadership and green innovation/creativity, (6) commonly used scales of green innovation and creativity, (7) summary of moderators, and (8) summary of mediators between leadership and green innovation/creativity. The findings show that there is a growing interest in the causal relationships among leadership and green innovation/creativity, and that Asian countries dominate the study domain. This study proposes a taxonomy of mediators and moderators. A concept map illustrating the main themes and concepts is also presented, and the study concludes by offering an agenda for future research. This study contributes to a deep understanding of the mechanisms underlying green innovation/creativity in the service context as well as extending research on the leadership–green-innovation/creativity nexus.