International Journal of Urban Management and Energy Sustainability

International Journal of Urban Management and Energy Sustainability

Strategic Leadership Intelligence: A Driver of Sustainable Marketing in Iraq

Document Type : Case Study

Authors
1 Ph.D. Student, Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
2 Professor, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabili, Iran
3 Professor, Department of business management, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
Abstract
This study develops and tests a model of strategic leadership intelligence as an enabler of sustainable marketing strategy implementation in Iraqi organizations. The study is applied in purpose and follows an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design: the qualitative stage builds the theory and identifies the dimensions of the construct, and the quantitative stage tests the resulting model on an independent sample. In the qualitative stage, twenty academic experts and senior Iraqi managers were selected through purposive and snowball sampling, and data were gathered through semi-structured interviews until theoretical saturation and analyzed following the grounded theory procedures of Strauss and Corbin (1990). In the quantitative stage, 215 usable questionnaires were collected from managers and senior specialists in manufacturing, service, commercial and industrial organizations, principally in Baghdad, Basra and Erbil, using a structured five-point Likert instrument. The qualitative stage identified strategic leadership intelligence, comprising four dimensions vision intelligence, adaptive intelligence, stakeholder intelligence and sustainable decision intelligence as the core phenomenon governing sustainable marketing strategy implementation in the Iraqi business environment. Causal, contextual and intervening conditions, together with strategies and consequences, were identified within a paradigm model. In the quantitative stage, all six tested paths were positive and significant. The strongest was the effect of the core phenomenon on strategies, followed by the effect of strategies on consequences (0.72). A finding requiring theoretical scrutiny is the positive effect of intervening conditions on strategies (0.77), given that these conditions were identified as barriers in the qualitative stage; this inconsistency is examined in the discussion. The study operationalizes strategic leadership intelligence as a measurable four-dimensional construct, links it directly to sustainable marketing strategy implementation, and extends upper echelons theory to the sustainability domain in a high-uncertainty institutional context that is under-represented in the literature.
Keywords

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  • Receive Date 12 August 2024
  • Revise Date 03 October 2024
  • Accept Date 06 December 2024