The important role of leadership in management of today's organizations has been emphasized for many years by executives and experts in the field. The role of knowledge in leading organizations is prominent. This study aims to examine the role of the knowledge-Oriented Leadership in market orientation that seeks to achieve innovation. Market orientation (MO) lies at the bottom of modern marketing thinking and practice. Although research has shown that MO contributes to firm performance through innovation implementation, an understanding is lacking on how the dimensions of MO (customer orientation, competitor orientation, and inter-functional coordination) may have differential effects on innovation, especially in the sales force context. As a survey research, data were gathered through a structured questionnaire with a sample of 92 executive level employees employed in ISPs in Mazandaran province. SEM was used to examine the standard error of the estimate and t-values. Findings suggest that knowledge-oriented leadership has a positive effect on innovation implementation by mediating of market orientation. Interestingly, innovative organizational culture was found to have mediated the relationship between Knowledge-oriented leadership and innovation implementation of the ISPs in Mazandaran. Moreover, results indicate that effect of sales force market orientation on sales performance is fully mediated by innovation implementation.
