Leadership brings innovation through digitalization : A study on how leaders contribute to digital innovations

Abstract: The objective of this exploratory thesis has been to study how leaders incorporate innovations into the business processes with the help of technical solutions and their competencies. The study takes into consideration the best practices of consulting companies, multinational manufacturing companies, and digitally creative consultant companies where leaders are able to bring innovation with the help of technical solutions. It deals with questions on what technical solutions help leaders to implement innovations, and also, what are the skills and competencies required by leaders to bring innovation with the help of digitalization. The findings of the research aim to develop a profound understanding on the concepts of leadership, innovation and also digitalization in the modern era. The thesis was carried out in light of semi- structured interviews, to understand the study areas, and proceed further with the data processing, empirical findings, analysis and conclusions. Owing to the rapid development in technologies, and the innovative ways of working, organisations lose their competitive advantages with the growing times if their leadership doesn’t evolve with the advancement that prevails. There has also been previous literature on how digitalization helps leadership to bring innovation and transformation within business organizations, however, there has been lack of studies and research gap to show that leadership has its extensive role to bring innovation within organizations with the help of digitalization and leadership competencies. Therefore, this master thesis worked to combine previous research on leadership, digitalization along with the modern insights based on empirical data. The research has used one qualitative method of semi-structured interview, revealing insightful findings on the data collected for our thesis. Moreover, this Master thesis will serve as a foundation for the future studies and research within the areas of leadership, innovation and digitalization.