Leading through complexity: an integrative review and contingent innovation framework

Purpose This integrative review synthesizes research on adaptive, agile, complexity and ambidextrous leadership and innovation under VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) to clarify how leaders orchestrate context-sensitive (“contingent”) innovation. Design/methodology/approach Guided by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020, we searched Scopus (December 29, 2025), screened 85 records and synthesized 34 journal articles (2015–2025). We appraised evidence [Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT)-informed for empirical papers; conceptual-rigor checklist for conceptual papers] and analyzed it using a concept-centric coding matrix. Findings Four themes recur: (1) leadership as sensemaking/framing and enabling experimentation; (2) innovation as exploration–exploitation balancing (ambidexterity), often expressed at the level of an evolving innovation initiative portfolio; (3) psychological safety, trust, organizational support and self-efficacy as mechanisms for innovative work behavior; and (4) dynamic capabilities that transform experiments into reconfiguration. We develop a four-proposition framework that integrates these themes by specifying mediation pathways and boundary conditions (portfolio governance routines and coordination overload). Research limitations/implications Theory-building synthesis; propositions require empirical testing. Practical implications The framework serves as a diagnostic and action tool and provides scenario-based leadership routines for balancing experimentation with disciplined alignment. Originality/value We define contingent innovation capability as an organizational orchestration capability–comprising sensing, portfolio governance and integration/reconfiguration routines–and explain how adaptive leadership behaviors develop and activate it to couple safe-to-fail experimentation with disciplined integration as contingencies shift.