How Leadership Influences Open Government Data (OGD)-Driven Innovation: The Mediating Role of Organizational Commitment

Open government data (OGD) are considered a sustainable driver of firm innovation. Leadership is a crucial decision-maker for firms to employ OGD in innovation. The present study focuses on two of the most prominent leadership styles: transformational and transactional. Drawing on the Organizational Commitment Theory, we claim that affective and normative commitment are the two parallel mechanisms that explain how leadership promotes OGD-driven innovation in firms. Our results show that transformational leadership promotes OGD-driven radical innovation through affective commitment. In contrast, transactional leadership promotes OGD-driven incremental innovation through normative commitment. More importantly, we suggest that the OGD application stage moderates the effect of leadership on organizational commitment. Specifically, in the initial stage of the OGD application, higher transformational leadership triggers higher affective commitment in employees. In contrast, in the mature stage of OGD application, higher transactional leadership triggers higher normative commitment in employees.