Buy-in to a Credible Vision! Why Leaders Make Prospector Responses to Learning-Oriented Performance Reform

The implementation of learning-oriented performance reforms that seek to replace
performance regimes based on external accountability is an important phenomenon.
This article examines how leaders respond to such reforms and what factors make
leaders pursue a prospector response. The article conceptualizes and examines the
phenomenon through a mixed method study in the Danish hospital sector and find
that some leaders respond in a prospector way and that reactor responses disappear
over time. The key result is that leader buy-in to the vision of learning-oriented
performance reform and the perception of higher level commitment to the reform
further prospector responses.