The Impact of Humble Leadership on Bootlegging Innovation Behavior and Green Innovation Behavior

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, Chinese manufacturing enterprises are facing increasingly intense competition. Meanwhile, the ever- evolving technological landscape adds further uncertainty to this competitive context. Under such circumstances, whether Chinese manufacturing firms can achieve sustainable innovation has become the key to maintaining their competitive advantage. Employees account for the key drivers of corporate advancement, and corporate innovation fundamentally relies on employees’ innovative behaviors. Consequently, research on employees’ innovative behaviors has become a focal point for both academia and industry. Among the extensive studies on the employees’ innovative behaviors, two types of innovation behaviors have gained growing attention - bootlegging innovation and green innovation behaviors: The former often serves as the precursor to many disruptive innovations, while the latter directly addresses the widely recognized issue of ecological sustainability. Therefore, further research on these two types of innovative behaviors will offer theoretical insights and practical guidance for corporate transformation, upgrading, and green development of Chinese manufacturing firms. Despite the extensive reports on the correlation between these two types of innovative behaviors and the leadership style, there remain several gaps in the literature. One notable gap is the unclear linkage between humble leadership and these two forms of innovation behavior. A nascent notion in leadership research, humble leadership is characterized by a bottom-up orientation. Rather than relying solely on the leader’s dominance, this leadership style emphasizes motivating subordinates and fostering their initiative, and stimulates employees’ innovative vitality by giving respect to their agency and autonomy. Therefore, humble leadership is highly likely to encourage bootlegging innovation and green innovation behaviors of employees, which has important implications for cultivating innovative behavior among employees in Chinese manufacturing firms. The main objectives of the present work are to examine how humble leadership affects the bootlegging innovation and green innovation behaviors among employees in Chinese manufacturing firms, and to investigate the role of mental health as a mediator and the self-interest organizational ethical climate (SIOEC) as a moderator in the effect. To achieve this goal, the study first systematically reviewed and analyzed prior research related to the main variables, clarifying their conceptual connotations, measurement dimensions, and antecedents and consequences, and then proposed corresponding research hypotheses. Based on this theoretical framework, a questionnaire survey was conducted using well-established measurement scales, and a leader - subordinate matched sampling design and a two-wave data collection approach were adopted. Ultimately, 356 valid samples were obtained. The collected data then underwent statistical analysis to verify the validity of the results of the present work. Reliability and factor analyses were first used to assess data quality, after which the research hypotheses were tested through hierarchical regression analysis and structural equation modeling. In the present work, a significant and positive impact of humble leadership on both the bootlegging and green innovation behaviors was observed, with mental health as the mediator in this relationship. It was also found that SIOEC moderates the positive impacts of humble leadership on the mental health of employees - as the SIOEC level grows higher, the positive impacts of humble leadership on mental health are weakened. The research findings are expected to provide a valuable reference for enterprises and leaders, especially regarding human-centered management and the promotion of organizational innovation. Examining humble leadership as an antecedent of bootlegging and green innovation behaviors provides more insights into the factors influencing these two forms of innovation behavior. Moreover, by introducing mental health as a mediator, it extends existing works on the psychological mechanisms underlying the impacts of humble leadership on innovative behaviors in organizations and among employees. As previous reports devoted to the correlation between humble leadership and mental health remain rare, the present work also extends the research on the antecedents of mental health. Additionally, the examination of the role of SIOEC as a moderator in the correlation between humble leadership and the innovative behaviors of employees deepens the understanding of how the leadership styles and OEC jointly influence employees’ mental health. In the last section, the limitations of the present work are presented, and the directions for future research are recommended.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• CHAPTER 1. Introduction·1
• 1.1 Research Background 1
• 1.2 Research Objectives 5
• 1.3 Research Significance 6
• 1.4 Research Content and Methodology10
• CHAPTER 2. Theoretical foundation14
• 2.1 Social Exchange theory· 14
• 2.2 Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory·15
• 2.3 Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) Model 16
• 2.4 Humble Leadership 18
• 2.5 Mental Health 28
• 2.6 Organizational Ethical Climate (OEC) 35
• 2.7 Bootlegging Innovation Behavior42
• 2.8 Green Innovation Behavior 49
• 2.9 Summary of the Chapter 53
• CHAPTER 3. Research Hypothesis 55
• 3.1 Humble Leadership and Bootlegging Innovation Behavior 55
• 3.2 Humble Leadership and Green Innovation Behavior·57
• 3.3 Humble Leadership and Employees’Mental Health61
• 3.4 Mediation Effect of Mental Health 64
• 3.5 Mediation Impact of Mental Health 2 68
• 3.6 Moderating Effect of Self-Interest Organizational Ethical Climate 70
• 3.7 Moderated Mediation Effects·73
• 3.8 Research model74
• 3.9 Summary 75
• CHAPTER 4. Research Methodology77
• 4.1 Research Design·77
• 4.2 Rationale for Using the Questionnaire Survey Method· 79
• 4.3 Data Collection Procedure and Sample Description81
• 4.4 Questionnaire Design·83
• 4.5 Data Analysis Techniques88
• 4.6 Summary of the Chapter 89
• CHAPTER 5.Statistical Results· 90
• 5.1 Reliability analysis·90
• 5.2 Convergent validity analysis90
• 5.3 Discriminant Validity and Correlation Analysis·91
• 5.4 Confirmatory Factor Analysis 93
• 5.5 Common Method Bias Analysis·94
• 5.6 Multicollinearity Test· 94
• 5.7 Mediation effect testing 1 95
• 5.8 Mediation effect testing 2 97
• 5.9 Mediation Effect Testing: Structural Equation Modeling 98
• 5.10 Moderation effect testing· 99
• 5.11 Moderated Mediation Effect Testing: Bootlegging Innovation Behavior·101
• 5.12 Moderated Mediation Effect Testing: Green Innovation Behavior102
• 5.13 Summary of the Chapter104
• CHAPTER 6.Conclusion and Discussion105
• 6.1 Research Conclusions 105
• 6.2 Theoretical Contributions 108
• 6.3 Practical Implications·113
• 6.4 Limitations and Future Research118
• Reference· 123
• 국문초록· 154
• List of Table
• Table 1. Summary of definitions of humble leadership20
• Table 2. Summary of factors influencing mental health 33
• Table 3. Summary of Antecedents of Bootlegging Innovation Behavior·48
• Table 4 Sample Description· 83
• Table 5. Reliability analysis 90
• Table 6. Convergent validity analysis91
• Table 7. Correlation analysis results 92
• Table 8. Measurement model fit 93
• Table 9. Confirmatory factor analysis94
• Table 10 Multicollinearity test results94
• Table 11. Mediation effect testing 1· 95
• Table12. Mediation effect testing 297
• Table 13. Mediation model fit99
• Table 14. Moderation effect testing· 100
• Table 15. The moderated mediation effect 1 101
• Table 16. The moderated mediation effect 2 103
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