The Relative Contribution of the Great Eight Leadership Skills Among Academic Leaders in Supporting Interaction Between Universities and other Active Organizations in the Innovation System

This study aimed to reveal the degree of the relative contribution of the eight great leadership skills among academic leaders in realizing the importance of supporting interaction between the university and other active organizations in the innovation system. The study followed the descriptive approach with its quantitative design. Respondents were identified using a simple random sampling method, with 177 academic leaders participating in the study. To collect field data, the study relied on the scale of the eight great leadership skills, and the scale of interaction between the university and other active organizations in the innovation system. The results showed that the academic leaders possessed the great eight leadership skills with a high degree, and similarly the importance of supporting the interaction between the university and other active organizations in the innovation system achieved a high level. The results revealed the contribution of five of the great eight leadership skills in predicting the level of academic leaders' awareness of the importance of supporting interaction between the university and other active organizations in the innovation system and explained 36 % of the variance in the dependent variable. These skills are descendingly arranged as follows: (1) innovation management, (2) creativity, (3) planning, (4) strategic agility, and (5) building effective teams. In light of the results of this study, a set of recommendations and future proposals were presented, which hopefully will contribute to enhancing the interaction of universities to shape the innovation economy in Saudi Arabia.