A Case Study on the Impact of Responsible Leadership for SDG Implementation: A Cross-Level Research

When COVID-19 struck the world as a pandemic in early 2020, there was an urgent need for healthcare. This study is conducted in a non-profit bio-innovation and entrepreneurship enabler Indian organization, which launched a rapid innovation deployment program in the country’s fight against the dreaded virus. In a quest to answer what can a responsible leadership do to address a global healthcare crisis, and based on multiple theoretical approaches, the cross-level research aims to explore the antecedents, responsible actions, and outcomes of responsible leadership. For this, a qualitative single-case research was designed which examined how responsible leadership strives to work towards sustainability and implementation of the SDGs. Inductively defining the responsible leadership process, the study proposes a cross-level framework that encapsulates a multi-level (micro, meso, and macro/ecosystem) conceptualization of responsible leadership. The findings make several contributions to the literatures on leadership and in particular responsible leadership, and methodology. Advancing the theoretical understanding of responsible leadership in an emerging economy during the pandemic crisis, this study has implications for organizations and recommends directions for future research.