A Study on Paradoxical Leadership and Multiple Path Mechanisms of Employees' Bootleg Innovation.

Purpose: Based on the social cognitive theory and cognitive-affective system theory, the purpose of this study is to explore how and when paradoxical leadership enhances employees' bootlegging innovation. To achieve this purpose, the authors proposed a double-chain mediation model in this study. Methods: Data with 342 questionnaires were collected for effective matching between employees and leaders at two time nodes. The hypotheses were validated by structural equation modeling and bootstrap approaches. Results: Results indicate that paradoxical leadership has a significant and positive impact on employees' bootleg innovation. In addition, psychological capital and thriving at work play a partial mediating role between paradoxical leadership and employees' bootlegging behaviors respectively and a chain mediating role between the two together. Moreover, there is no significant difference among the three mediating paths. Conclusion: The present research advances our understanding of bootleg innovation with a focus on the specific role of paradoxical leadership. Our findings, and especially those related to the role of psychological capital and thriving at work, reveal the influence mechanisms of paradoxical leadership on employees' bootleg innovation. At the same time, it is useful for understanding what leadership style can effectively stimulate employees' bootleg innovation.

The "Double-Edged Sword" Effects of LMX Ambivalence---An Integrated Model of Two Approaches Based on Cognitive Flexibility and Job Anxiety.

Purpose: Bootleg Innovation helps enterprises create unconventional innovation achievements, and has gradually become an important approach for radical innovation under the background of open innovation. Through the integration of the cognitive-affective processing system and conservation of resources (COR) theory, the present study takes integrative complexity as a moderator, and explores the mechanism of LMX ambivalence on employees' bootleg innovation. Participants and Methods: A total of 387 employees and 110 supervising managers participated in the two-wave dyadic survey. To test our hypotheses, we performed the hierarchical regression and conducted bootstrapping analyses to test our hypotheses. Results: Findings indicated that LMX ambivalence not only improves employees' cognitive flexibility and promotes bootleg innovation, but also aggravates employees' job anxiety and hinders bootleg innovation. In addition, integrative complexity significantly moderates the above two mediating paths. Specifically, when integrative complexity was higher, the negative mediating effect of job anxiety was attenuated, and the positive mediating effect of cognitive flexibility was enhanced. Conclusion: Contrasting with previous research, this research analyzed the triggering mechanism of bootleg innovation combined with the dynamic interaction of environmental stimulus, emotion and cognition. The findings provide novel insight into how to achieve bootleg innovation.