The present study aims to provide insights into the leadership–innovation relationship on the national level by considering national-level contingency factors. We argue that the impact of a prevailing leadership style on innovation is mediated by economic and political factors and innovation-related cultural practices. Moreover, it is argued that the educational level of a country is related to the prevailing leadership style and economic factors. We propose a model and test its explanatory power with a sample of 55 countries using variance-based structural equation modeling. The results show that the prevailing leadership style has no direct relationship with national innovation but is mediated by the abovementioned factors. The results also show that the level of education within a country is positively related to participative leadership and negatively to team-oriented leadership. Furthermore, the level of education is directly related to economic and political factors and indirectly to national innovation.