Doctoral thesis (PhD)This thesis investigates an ontology that there exists a Strategic Academic Leadership (SAL) in higher education institutions (HEIs) context that can enhance students‟ intention to apply Strategic Innovative Behavior (SIB) at workplaces. SIB is defined in this thesis as a combination of strategic, but ethical innovation virtues (as measured by students‟ Affective Commitment) that enhances the society‟s welfare as time goes on. In order to investigate the ontology of SAL and how it interacts in a given HEI context with confounding generative mechanisms and mediations to enhance students‟ intention to apply SIB at workplaces, a critical realism research philosophy and the exploratory sequential design (a design that explain more about qualitative findings by employing quantitative methods) was taken to establish a SAL model in three phases: the emergent phase, the theory construction phase, and the theory evaluation phase. During the emergent phase, barriers that hinder students‟ intention to be innovative at workplace were identified based on a focus group discussion of 12 students and a Constant Comparison Analysis (CCA) of responses of 113 students on open-ended question. Also, an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was done on a structured questionnaire from 65 respondents in order to extract rotated factors, and then Exploratory Structural Equations Modeling (ESEM) approach was used to confirm them. Factors which were extracted and confirmed are students‟ External Contacts (EXC), Social Injunctive Structures (SIS), and students‟ Affective Commitment (AC) to apply SIB, Perceived Social Trust (PST) and Perceived Ease to Apply (PETA) SIB at workplaces. It was also confirmed that Strategic Technology Acceptance Model (STAM) as theorized in this thesis, was able to measure students‟ intention to apply SIB at workplaces using PST and PETA, where the explained variation of intention was 81%. During the theory construction phase, the mediation analysis technique was used with ESEM approach to construct an initial plausible integrative causal model (the SAL model) from which the hypothetico-deductive explanations about generative mechanisms and mediations were stated. The hypothetico-deductive generative mechanism were: SIS, SAL and AC, while the hypothetico-deductive mediation were, SIS mediating the relationship between EXC and SAL, SAL mediating partially the influence of SIS on AC, and AC mediating fully the influence of SAL on students‟ intention to apply SIB at workplaces. Moreover, the discriminant analysis responses on open-ended question and the normal distribution analysis were used to categorize students as adopters of SIB where categories were similar to those identified by Rodger‟s (2003) model of innovation diffusion. These similarities helped to reveal the link between students‟ intention to adopt SIB at workplaces and barriers facing them. During the theory evaluation phase, the initial SAL model was replicated in a survey of 398 students from other three HEIs apart from the first HEI, in order to determine if hypothetico-deductive generative mechanism relationships remain stable to signify the existence of generative mechanisms. Also, the validities of hypothetico-deductive mediations were evaluated. The findings confirmed that SIS, SAL and AC are generative mechanisms that interact to enhance students‟ intention to apply SIB at workplaces. These findings and further discriminant analysis of findings confirmed the ontology SAL. Furthermore, the research findings confirmed that SIS mediates relationship between students‟ EXC and SAL, SAL mediates partially the influence of SIS on students‟ AC, and students‟ AC mediates fully the influence of SAL on students‟ intention to apply SIB at workplaces. It was also noted that although students‟ EXC regularities are not a generative mechanism, they enhance the stability and plausibility of the SAL model. It was also observed that there is a negative relationship (trade-off relationship) between students‟ AC and their level of exposure to different extrinsic experiences. The plane formed by students‟ AC level and their extrinsic exposure level, showed that students‟ AC, their intention, SIS and SAL are efficient points that form a production possibility curve (PPC). Thus, the researcher theorizes that there exists an efficient combination of students‟ AC and their exposure to extrinsic experiences in a given HEI‟s context that optimizes students‟ intention to apply SIB at workplaces such that this combination forms a PPC. Thus, the SAL model implies that SAL enhances students‟ intention to apply SIB at workplaces such that SAL and students‟ intention are aligned and supported by SIS and students‟ AC. This thesis recommends, first, faculties in HEIs to adopt the SAL in facilitating learning process; second, students to adopt SIB as part of their ethical innovative virtues; and third, actors of social power structures to foster SIS in the society. This will help to enhance strategic, but ethical innovative behavior and ultimately the welfare of people in the society as time goes on. Recommended SAL practices to faculties include enlightening students broadly, emphasizing on ethics of caring, engaging each student actively in creativity, being enthusiastic to students‟ creativity, and evaluating constructively students‟ creativity (5Es). Recommended SIB to students include being considerate, constructive, communicative, and collaborative (4Cs). Moreover, recommended SIS practices include commitment to teamwork, valuing innovative ideas fairly, and the support of movement, leadership and experts on innovation activities. It is also recommended to replicate the SAL model in different studies in order to confirm its external validity and applications.