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.