Diversity and Inclusive Leadership as Drivers of Product Innovation in Canadian Fin Tech Startups

Abstract

This paper is about diversity and inclusive leadership and how they relate to product innovation in Canadian fintech startups. In particular, it discusses the relationship between leadership towards youths, women and ethnically diverse employees with improvement in the current products, new product development, product uniqueness, and green product initiative. The research design was quantitative research and cross-sectional research. The population of the study consisted of 126 employees of 13 Canadian fintech start-up firms. The data were gathered through a structured questionnaire and interpreted with the help of partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4.1. The findings showed that perceived discrimination and leadership towards youths, women and ethnically diverse workers are important in relating to the improvement of the existing products, new product development, product uniqueness, and green product initiatives. The paper has highlighted the strategic value of diversity and inclusion in competitive advantage creation and given practical suggestions that fintech startups can implement to use inclusive behaviours to foster product innovation.

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