Search

Knowledge is an essential source for competitive advantage. The existence of knowledge and the encouragement of knowledge sharing (KS) cultures within learning environments will increase the quality of education and create opportunities for innovation. As universities are environments for creating knowledge, KS and leadership styles are important vehicles to enhance or impair Innovation through this knowledge environment. Higher education in Iraq, as many countries, is facing major challenges that require certain types of leadership styles. Education provision needs to maintain international standards in curricula, approaches, methods, and systems. Although there are many styles have been studied in the leadership area, the most important style that is effective in terms of knowledge sharing and innovation is transformational leadership. This paper aims to develop a conceptual model of the effect of transformational leadership (TL) on innovation through knowledge sharing (KS) in Iraqi higher education institutions. Interpretvisim approach was used through conducting interviews with 26 senior management and members of staff, in faculty of Economic and Administration in Iraq. The results show the need for KS within the faculty and the importance of TL on process innovation more than product innovation. This research consider an initial attempt to explore the impact of TL on innovation through mediating effect of KS within domain of higher education in the developing countries particularly in Arabic world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge and knowledge sharing are recognised as being important resources for competitive advantage, and key to enhancing the innovation of organisations. It is argued that the encouragement of knowledge-sharing cultures within learning environments such as universities, can increase the quality of education and can create opportunities for innovation. This research aims to examine the impact of sharing (donating and collecting) knowledge on product and process innovation. A total of 230 usable questionnaires were collected from private colleges in Iraq. Structural equation modelling with AMOS 20 confirmed the importance of knowledge sharing in developing innovation in higher education. The results revealed that collecting knowledge has a greater effect on product and process innovation than donating knowledge. Guidelines are developed for academics as well as leaders, and evidence is provided in support of the use of sharing knowledge in enhancing product and process innovation within higher education in developing countries generally and in Iraq in particular. The implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]