Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

lead to

lead to , transitive verb

1.
Same as cause; as, the roaring stock market led to an increase in the purchase of big-ticket items during the 1996 Christmas season.
2.
to be a contributory cause of; as, IBM's inattention to the needs of individual users led to the demise of OS/2 as a viable alternative to Windows 95.