Discovering a Unique Talent: On the Nature of Individual Innovation Leadership

How does it happen that some individuals become exceptional innovation leaders and their organizations output a constant flow of innovation? Based on autobiographical and biographical accounts of well-known innovation leaders and integrating a number of independent directions of research, this article presents a theory of innovation leadership. The theory aims to explain the nature of innovation leadership at the individual level, that is, why some individuals are very good at both generating and implementing new ideas into practice in the form of new products, processes, or services.