Influencing Mechanism of the Combination of Creative Self-Efficacy and Psychological Safety on Employees’ Bootleg Innovation

Abstract

The bootlegging achievements initiated by employees play an important role in realizing high-quality development in China. Extant literature has not investigated the formation mechanism of bootleg innovation from the perspective of motivation. Therefore, this study integrates the cognitive factors of employees’ creative self-efficacy and psychological safety based on social cognitive theory and introduces performance prove goal orientation as the mediator from the perspective of motivation to explore its influence on bootleg innovation. Data collected from 468 employees from 53 technological companies at three time nodes demonstrate that: Creative self-efficacy and psychological safety can promote employees’ bootleg innovation; the combination of high creative self-efficacy and high psychological safety is more likely to drive bootleg innovation than the combination of double low levels of them; a consistent combination of creative self-efficacy and psychological safety is more likely to drive innovative behavior than an inconsistent combination of them; the combination of high creative self efficacy and low psychological security is more likely to drive bootleg innovation than the combination of the vice versa; employees’ creative self-efficacy and psychological security affect bootleg innovation mainly through the formation of performance-prove goal orientation; and the error management climate can positively moderate the mediating effect of performance-prove goal orientation. This study provides a new perspective on the formation mechanism of bootleg innovation and can serve as a practical reference for enterprises to motivate employees’ bootleg innovation.

Keywords

creative self-efficacy / psychological safety / performance-prove goal orientation / error management climate / bootleg innovation

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2024 Higher Education Press