The phrase "a central influence on" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe something that has a significant impact or effect on a particular subject or situation.
Example: "The research conducted by the team was a central influence on the development of new policies in the organization."
Alternatives: "a key factor in" or "a major impact on".
During his isolated recovery, he began to play with dolls, an activity that later proved to have a central influence on his art.
The book explores the political challenges of responding to a stigmatized condition, and identifies ethnic boundaries--the formal and informal institutions that divide societies--as a central influence on politics and policymaking.
In outlining her own experiences in technology and business, which have taken her from the Institute's laboratories to the executive suite, Su observed that MIT has been a central influence on her own life and career.
That book has changed countless lives and made Malcolm a central influence on generations of black men who admire his force, his courage, his brilliance, and his way of merging the protean trickster and the bold intellectual activist and the inspiring preacher.
Charles Darwin regarded his work as a central influence on the theory of evolution.
He had been Lennon's assistant for three years, he had been a central influence on the team's style of play and form, and he had a poor track record as a manager.
Antonovsky [ 46] posits that a sense of coherence is a central influencing factor on health and well-being.
This institution was the central influence on, and regulator of, Britain's musical history at a time when the forms and structures of modern classical music were being invented, along with new instruments that produce the sounds heard in contemporary concert halls.
One central influence on the founders' political thought was John Locke, the English liberal who wrote the now famous "Letter on Toleration".
The central influence on the international units was the series of international electrical congresses of the late nineteenth century, which I conclude were a highly unsatisfactory mechanism, responsible for many of the weaknesses in the resulting standards.
