Convenor
Convenor's affiliation
Marian Garcia
Aston University
Co-convenors
Cher Li, Roberta Fida
Abstract
This track explores how governance and leadership structures shape organisational resilience, productivity, and innovation in times of technological disruption. As emerging technologies such as AI, automation, and digital platforms transform industries, firms must adapt their governance systems to remain creative, competitive, and responsible. The track invites studies connecting micro-level leadership dynamics (e.g., board composition, executive cognition, team collaboration) with macro-level outcomes (e.g., innovation performance, productivity, societal resilience). It seeks to understand how governance mechanisms enable or constrain adaptive capacity, and what new formal or informal structures are emerging — across corporate, network, and ecosystem levels — to ensure responsible and sustainable innovation. We welcome conceptual, empirical, and practice-based papers using diverse methods and disciplinary perspectives.
Description
Technological turbulence — from advances in artificial intelligence and automation to the emergence of digital ecosystems — is reshaping how organisations lead, govern, and sustain innovation. In this shifting environment, resilience is no longer simply a matter of risk management; it is a strategic capability rooted in adaptive governance and purposeful leadership. This track seeks to understand how governance and leadership mechanisms can both enable and constrain innovation resilience — the ability of organisations to absorb shocks, reconfigure resources, and sustain innovation performance during disruption.
At the micro level, leadership cognition, board composition, and top-team dynamics shape strategic attention, risk orientation, and learning processes. Distributed and inclusive leadership may enhance responsiveness and creativity, while overly rigid hierarchies can hinder adaptation. At the meso and macro levels, governance systems — spanning corporate, inter-organisational, and ecosystem forms — determine how innovation efforts are coordinated, monitored, and sustained across complex networks of actors.
We invite research addressing the following themes (including, but not limited to):
• How governance structures, board diversity, and leadership cognition affect organisational adaptability and innovative capacity;
• Mechanisms of ambidextrous or agile governance that balance exploration and exploitation under technological change;
• AI and data governance frameworks that align innovation speed with ethical responsibility;
• Platform and ecosystem governance promoting collaboration, diffusion, and resilience;
• Public-private and mission-oriented governance driving sustainable technological transformation;
• Workforce and skills governance supporting productivity amid automation and digitalisation;
• Responsible innovation and ESG leadership ensuring trust, inclusion, and societal value creation.
The track welcomes interdisciplinary and multi-method approaches — ranging from quantitative analysis and machine-learning-based text studies to comparative case research, design science, and policy evaluation. Contributions may focus on firms, public organisations, or innovation ecosystems, as well as cross-national or sectoral comparisons.
Our ambition is to bridge the micro-foundations of leadership behaviour and cognitive framing with macro-outcomes in productivity, competitiveness, and sustainable innovation. By integrating perspectives from innovation management, strategic leadership, organisation studies, and public policy, this track will provide a platform to advance theory and practice on how governance and leadership can build innovation systems that are resilient, productive, and responsible in the face of technological disruption.
Depending on the thematic cohesion of submissions, we will explore the potential for a Special Issue in a leading innovation or management outlet to further disseminate the insights emerging from this track.