Coordinating innovation without unified authority: leadership and organizational identification in hybrid organizations

We examine patterns of coordinated innovation in hybrid organizations characterized by institutional plurality, fragmented authority, and overlapping role expectations by studying an apprenticeship system jointly governed by educational institutions and enterprises. Drawing on social identity theory as well as research on transformational leadership and organizational identification, we propose that leadership is associated with innovation not only through direct relationships but also through shared identification that aligns actors embedded in multiple institutional domains. We further suggest that these relationships vary across innovation domains. Using survey data from apprentices ( N = 2,156) within Geely, a leading innovation-intensive automotive enterprise, we test a mediation model distinguishing managerial and technological innovation. The findings indicate that organizational identification partially mediates the association between transformational leadership and innovation, with systematic domain differences. Identification exhibits a stronger association with technological innovation, whereas transformational leadership shows a comparatively stronger direct association with managerial innovation. These findings highlight how leadership and identification are linked to coordination processes in hybrid organizations operating under high innovation intensity. By theorizing identity-based mechanisms consistent with social identity theory underlying domain-contingent innovation patterns, this study advances understanding of leadership and innovation in hybrid organizational forms and sheds light on coordination under institutional plurality.