Environmental leaders and pioneers: agents of change?

Abstract:

This article distinguishes between states acting as environmental leaders or pioneers. While leaders usually actively seek to attract followers, this is not normally the case for pioneers. Dependent on their internal and external ambitions, states may take on the position of a laggard, pioneer, pusher or symbolic leader. When doing so, states employ various combinations of types and styles of leadership or pioneership.

Four types of leadership/pioneership – structural, entrepreneurial, cognitive and exemplary – and two styles of leadership/pioneership – transactional/humdrum and transformational/heroic – are used to assess leaders and pioneers. The novel analytical framework put forward is intended to generate greater conceptual clarity, which is urgently needed for more meaningful theory-guided cumulative empirical research on leaders and pioneers.