Vered Holzmann, Laura Mazzini
The rise of creative economy in recent years has significantly changed the role of creativity in generating social and economic value. Many companies in the creative industries are project-based and their economic development is strictly related to successful implementation of projects. Key topic in the field of successful project management is leadership. However, there is still lack of research focusing on project leadership within the creative industries. Thus, the scope of this research was to explore and examine the relationship between leadership style and project success in creative industries. A web-based questionnaire that included questions on leadership styles and project success assessments to collect data from project stakeholders in the creative industries was administered. It was followed by semi-structured interviews that were conducted and analyzed following the thematic content analysis approach. The analyses of the data indicated that the preferable leadership style for successful projects is the transformational style, followed by the transactional leadership style, as both styles have a significant positive relationship to project success. The right balance between creativity and discipline is the major challenge for project managers in the creative industries. Thus, it is recommended to develop a supportive organizational culture and to continuously develop the project managers' soft skills and competences, focusing on inspirational motivation to enhance successful projects.