Followership practices as determinants of national innovativeness: a study across 56 cultures

PurposeThere is a dearth of literature on what are the factors in terms of leaders’ and followers’ characteristics that impact innovation at the country level. The purpose of this paper is to build theoretical argument and provide empirical evidence of these factors using a cross-cultural mode of study across 56 nations.Design/methodology/approachThe Bayesian modelling technique is used on data from the GLOBE survey.FindingsInnovation at the individual, team and organisational levels has generally been associated with the relationship-motivated leadership, as opposed to task-motivated leadership. This study confirms that this premise holds at the societal level of analysis as well. The second finding is that in terms of followers’ cultural characteristics, out of three variables (power distance, collectivism and performance orientation) tested, only power distance orientation is found to have a predictive relationship with aggregate innovation. The moderator slope analysis unveils a nuanced understanding of how the interaction between leadership styles and followers’ cultural traits impact national innovativeness.Research limitations/implicationsCulture and leadership configurations that bolster innovation need to be studied more thoroughly.Practical implicationsThis study has implications for multi-country teams involved in research and development activities.Originality/valueTo our knowledge, this is the first study to unpack leader−follower relationships as predictors of national innovation. A leadership-culture fit perspective is advanced.