Transformational Leadership, Organizational Innovation Culture, and Institutional Performance in Nigerian Business Education Institutions: A Multilevel Analysis

This study examined the multilevel relationships among transformational leadership, organizational innovation culture, and institutional performance in Nigerian Business Education institutions, addressing a significant gap in higher education leadership research in Africa. Drawing on the Full Range Leadership Model, the Organizational Innovation Theory, and the Balanced Scorecard Framework, a hierarchical multilevel theoretical model was developed and tested. A multilevel cross-sectional survey design was employed. The population comprised 2,400 academic and administrative staff across forty Business Education departments in universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education distributed across Nigeria six geopolitical zones. A stratified multistage sample of 960 respondents was drawn. Four validated instruments, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, the Organizational Innovation Culture Scale, the Institutional Performance Index, and the Organizational Climate Measure, were used for data collection. Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling using Mplus 8.6 was employed for analysis. The results reveal that transformational leadership has significant direct and indirect effects on institutional performance, with organizational innovation culture serving as a full mediator at the departmental level and a partial mediator at the institutional level. Leadership-performance relationships were moderated by organizational size and funding type. The study makes an original methodological contribution through its multilevel analytical approach and contributes a contextualized leadership-performance model for African Business Education institutions. Policy recommendations target the design of leadership development programmes that embed innovation culture creation as a core competency. Keywords: transformational leadership, innovation culture, institutional performance, multilevel analysis, Business Education institutions