Abstract
Of the many success factors for Research and Development activities that have been analyzed, leadership has been frequently highlighted. Many contributions emphasize the importance of leadership with regard to innovation management. However, they predominantly try to identify the superior leadership style, often lack precise definitions of research subjects and lead to equivocal generalizations. Consequently, it is almost impossible to identify unequivocal knowledge and derive directions for future research. The objectives of the paper are to prove the need for a distinct research agenda and to propose promising avenues regarding the research on R&D leadership.