Leading digital innovation in schools: the role of the open innovation mindset

Schools’ digitalization requires a shift of stakeholders’ mindsets, specific forms of leadership, and strategic knowledge management to deal with current and future educational challenges. The relationship between school leaders’ open innovation mindset, transformational leadership, knowledge management practices, and the effects on digital innovation are presented. A random sample of German school leaders is analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis to investigate the construct of school leaders’ open innovation mindset followed by structural equation modeling. Results show that digital innovations and transformational leadership in schools require school leaders with an open innovation mindset who foster a collaborative culture of knowledge exchange.