Entrepreneurial leadership and employee innovative behavior: an examination through multiple theoretical lenses

Amjad Iqbal, Tahira Nazir and Muhammad Shakil Ahmad

European Journal of Innovation Management, 2020, vol. 25, issue 1, 173-190

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this research is to determine the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and employee innovative behavior and examine mediating role of affective commitment, creative self-efficacy and psychological safety in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach - Using cross-sectional research design, data were collected from 343 employees of information technology (IT) service firms in Pakistan. Partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was applied to test the proposed research model. Findings - The findings reveal that entrepreneurial leadership is strongly and positively related to employee innovative behavior. Moreover, affective commitment, creative self-efficacy and psychological safety simultaneously mediate this relationship. Practical implications - This study uncovers the important role of entrepreneurial leadership in driving employee innovative behavior in high-tech services industry. Findings of this study suggest that by practicing entrepreneurial behaviors, managers can enhance employees' affective commitment, creative self-efficacy and psychological safety, which invoke employees to demonstrate innovative behavior leading toward improved innovation performance at organizational level. Originality/value - This research makes novel contribution to entrepreneurial leadership theory by using competing theoretical perspectives and subsequently providing more nuanced picture of the contrasting mechanisms that transmit the impact of entrepreneurial leadership on employee innovative behavior.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial leadership; Affective commitment; Creative self-efficacy; Psychological safety; Innovative behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ejimpp:ejim-06-2020-0212

DOI: 10.1108/EJIM-06-2020-0212

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Innovation Management is currently edited by Dr Vincenzo Corvello

More articles in European Journal of Innovation Management from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().