Abstract
This chapter discusses the intricacies of innovation and competitive advantage, the current leadership gap within FinTech firms, and how these occurrences are enabled and improved through the utilization of authentic leadership practices within the context of the FinTech industry. Following this discussion, the authors observe the future research directions and potential areas of exploration in which other scholars may divulge. Through the exploration of our research question, “How can authentic leadership behaviors enable innovation and competitive advantage in FinTech firms?” they found the importance of authentic leadership within any industry or organization may be enhanced and explored further, as it appears to have a positive impact on innovation within organizations which in turn has the potential to provide a variety of opportunities for growth and competitive advantage.
TopCritical Review Method
This Chapter utilizes the method of a critical literature review, focusing on the research question: How can authentic leadership behaviors enable innovation and competitive advantage in FinTech firms? The aim of this Chapter is to develop a critical perspective on the role of authentic leader behaviors in enabling innovation for competitive advantage while addressing the failing leadership of FinTech firms. In doing so, it explores the role of authentic leader behaviors in a corporate setting and its effect on developing innovation to create a competitive advantage. It also explicates the role of innovation through authentic leadership on organizational success.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Innovation: Innovation is the process of individuals or groups using their original and creative ideas to develop solutions to problems.
Ethics: Ethics refers to an individual’s concept of morals, including that of their ability to choose between right and wrong, good and bad, etc.
Fintech: FinTech involves the development of technology to enhance financial services, while enabling financial innovations through technology.
Organizational Development: Organizational development is the analysis of organizational change and performance, resulting is outcomes reflecting success.
Value Creation: Value creation is any given process or change to a product or service that creates outputs of greater value than its initial inputs.
Authentic Leader Behaviours: Authentic leader behaviors are the four specific behaviors demonstrated by an authentic leader. The four behaviors are sincerity, positive moral perspective, heightened awareness, balanced processing.
Leadership: Leadership is a skill surrounding an individual or groups ability to guide an organisation, team, or other individuals towards a common goal.
Competitive advantage: Competitive advantage is the ability for an entity to hold a strategy, process, or product that enables them to be superior to their competitors.