Leadership in Unconventional Contexts

In a world of accelerating technological progress, environmental pressure, and social change, leadership has become a defining factor for organisational success and human development alike. Today’s leaders must not only respond to transformation—they must anticipate it, navigating uncertainty with vision, empathy, and resilience. This challenge transcends traditional boundaries: leadership is no longer the exclusive domain of large corporations but a strategic necessity for small and medium-sized enterprises, family businesses, startups, and sports organisations.

This book explores leadership as an evolving social and organisational process rather than a fixed set of traits or techniques. Drawing from academic theory and real-world case studies, it analyses how different leadership models—transformational, situational, and sustainable, among others—interact with motivation, performance, and innovation. It highlights emerging contexts often neglected in leadership literature: amateur sports, where collective values meet competitive logic; motorsport, where technology, ethics, and performance intertwine; and startups, where leadership must balance agility, inclusion, and long-term vision.

In doing so, it draws “lessons learned” from these distinctive contexts to offer practical insights and transferable approaches that can inform leadership development across a wide range of organisational settings.

Managing Innovation in Business Strategy, Marketing and Finance has a goal of contributing to understanding the role of business innovation from the perspective of three key functional areas: strategy, marketing and finance.