How Humble Leadership Influences the Innovation of Technology Standards: A Moderated Mediation Model

Hong Jiang, Wentao Liu and Lili Jia
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Hong Jiang: School of Management, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, China
Wentao Liu: School of Management, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, China
Lili Jia: Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB4 2UF, UK

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 19, 1-20

Abstract: Management researchers have paid increasing attention to the role of humble leadership in innovation activities. The underlying mechanisms through which leader humility influences team innovation and outcomes, however, remain unclear. We aim to investigate the impact of humble leadership on the innovation of technology standards via knowledge exchange and combination and job complexity. We apply the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to the survey data from 354 individuals who participated in technology standard innovation activities in China. Our empirical results show that knowledge exchange and combination play a mediating role between humble leadership behavior and the innovation of technology standards. Particularly, we find that job complexity moderates the positive relationship between knowledge exchange and combination and the innovation of technology standards in a nonlinear way. This is the first time that the latent mechanisms of humble leadership have been identified in the innovation of technology standards based on knowledge-based theory.

Keywords: humble leadership; innovation of technology standards; knowledge exchange and combination; job complexity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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