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The trend of enterprise platformization is becoming increasingly prominent in the Internet environment, with the platform leadership gradually attracting great attention from enterprises and researchers. Platform leadership emphasizes the importance of subordinates’ careers and encourages leaders to build development platforms for employees. The growth of both leaders and employees might be the key factor affecting employee behavior. Bootleg innovation means an individual’s behavior of continuing to improve and promote creativity in an informal way without obtaining formal authorization from the leaders. It remains to be explored whether the bootleg innovation will be affected by platform leadership. Based on the cognitive-affective personality system theory and the person-environment fit, this paper constructs an impact model between platform leadership and employee bootleg innovation. Using a random sampling method, 450 questionnaires were distributed to employees of high-tech companies. The results show that (1) platform leadership has a positive impact on employee bootleg innovation; (2) job autonomy and emotional exhaustion play a mediating role between platform leadership and employee bootleg innovation; (3) team innovation climate positively regulates the relationship between platform leadership and employee job autonomy and emotional exhaustion. This paper reveals the internal mechanism of platform leadership affecting employee bootleg innovation through empirical study while expanding the application scope of cognitive-affective personality system theory. It contributes to the organizational behavior literature and provides theoretical inspiration and practical guidance for managers to properly deal with employee bootleg innovation behavior.

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. Keywords: LMX ambivalence, bootleg innovation, cognitive flexibility, job anxiety, integrative complexity

Research has acknowledged the value of bootleg innovation behavior (BIB) to organizational innovation. Unfortunately, we know little about the factors that lead to the emergence of this behavior, how and when it occurs. Integrating self-concordance theory and sense-making perspective, we build a moderated mediation model positioning work engagement as a mediator of the organizational identification’s effects on BIB, and willingness to take risks as a moderator of such effects. The results based on data analysis of 237 employees from different organizations in China show that organizational identification is positively related to BIB and work engagement partially mediates this link. Moreover, willingness to take risks not only moderates the work engagement–BIB association but also moderates the mediating effect of work engagement between organizational identification and BIB. Notably, at the lowest level of willingness to take risks, the influence of organizational identification on BIB via work engagement is insignificant.

This study examined the relationship between transformational leadership and employee bootleg innovation through the mediating role of creative self-efficacy and the moderating role of leader-member exchange (LMX). Data were collected from 279 employees and 56 matched supervisors within a large Chinese digital transformation group. A moderated mediation model analysis found that transformational leadership predicts higher employee bootleg innovation. Creative self-efficacy mediated the positive relationship between transformational leadership and employee bootleg. Additionally, leader-member exchange significantly moderated the relationship between transformational leadership and creative self-efficacy, for a further enhancement of bootleg innovation. These findings underscore the importance of transformative leadership in fostering digital employee innovation. This study provides further evidence of the relevance of self-determination theory in explaining the leadership and employee innovation, relationship within the context of digital transformation. By implication, creative self-efficacy and leader-member exchange are modifiable factors by digital transformation entities seeking a competitive advantage.

Background Bootleg innovation differs from traditional innovation in that it involves actions that either contravene established organizational rules and procedures or are conducted autonomously and covertly by individuals, with the aim of benefiting the organization. While prior research has highlighted a strong link between moral factors and bootleg innovation, there remains a paucity of studies exploring the moral foundations underlying such innovation. Drawing on moral licensing theory, this study examines the dual nature of bootleg innovation to elucidate the mechanism through which perceived organizational status influences employee engagement in bootleg innovation. Methods This study constructs and verifies a moderated mediating model of organizational status perception and bootleg innovation, using exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis based on 394 survey responses. Results The findings indicate that: (1) Perceived organizational status has a significant positive effect on employee bootleg innovation behavior. (2) Both dimensions of moral licensing (moral credits and moral credentials) mediate the relationship between perceived organizational status and bootleg innovation behavior. (3) Intrinsic motivation positively moderates the impact of perceived organizational status on moral credits and moral credentials. Conclusion This study offers a unique perspective on the moral dilemmas employees face in bootleg innovation, thereby providing a novel lens for understanding their bootleg innovation behavior.

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. 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 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. 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.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide insights into bootleg innovation by investigating whether perceived hindrance stressors play an important role in bootlegging and how different organizational ownership types (state-owned enterprises (SOEs) vs non-SOEs) affect this relationship. Design/methodology/approach The study samples comprised 3,967 employees from 674 knowledge-intensive companies in southern China. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Findings Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, the results show that hindrance stressors have a curvilinear (U-shaped) influence on bootleg innovation, and that the curve relationship between the hindrance stressors and bootlegging is more pronounced among employees in non-SOEs. Practical implications The findings indicate that either a low or high level of hindrance stressors can activate a high level of bootlegging activities among employees. These results suggest that managers need to be vigilant in detecting the level of hindrance because different motivations predominate at different stressor levels. Originality/value Based on the COR theory, the findings cast perceived hindrance stressors as an antecedent of bootlegging at the individual level. The inquiry into state ownership types further provides a comprehensive understanding of the non-linear relationship between hindrance stressors and bootlegging.

Bootleg innovation is a common phenomenon in Chinese universities. However, little is known about its influencing factors and mechanisms. Based on the trait activation theory, the current study proposes and tests a moderated mediation model by conducting an online survey of 1,038 university teachers at four undergraduate universities using convenient sampling. The findings suggest that the influence of individualistic orientation on bootleg innovation is greater than that of collectivism. Individualism has less influence on informal organizational norms than collectivism. Such norms play a partial mediating role between individualism/collectivism orientation and bootleg innovation behavior. Environmental uncertainty positively moderates the entire mediation model of individualistic orientation but not the first half of the path of the collectivist model. This study enriches the research on antecedent variables of bootleg innovation behavior and highlights the important role of situational factors in the entire mechanism. Plain language summary How Individualism/Collectivism Orientation Influence University Teachers’ Bootleg Innovation? Bootleg innovation is very common in Chinese universities, but little is known about its influencing factors and mechanisms. Based on trait activation theory, this study conducted an online survey of 1,038 university teachers at four undergraduate universities. The study found that individualistic orientation has a greater impact on bootleg innovation than collectivism. However, individualism does not have as great an impact on informal organizational norms as collectivism. The informal organizational norms play a partial mediating role in the relationship between individual collectivist orientation and bootleg innovative behavior. Environmental uncertainty had a positive moderating effect on the entire individualism-oriented model, but not on the first half of the collectivism model. This study enriches the research on the antecedent variables of bootleg innovative behavior and also highlights the important role of bond factors in the entire mechanism.

A PBO is a temporary organization formed by assembling members with diverse experiences and backgrounds, aimed at achieving specific innovation goals. Constructing a reasonable communication network structure and enhancing organizational synergy are effective ways to promote the sustainable development of the system. This study, based on the Input–Process–Output (IPO) model and social network analysis, utilized a group collaboration platform to conduct a three-stage communication experiment on 685 construction project managers. Under two organizational sizes, the internal mechanism of how communication networks with two levels of centralization influence task performance were tested. The results indicate that in the case of a smaller organizational size, PBOs using a decentralized communication network tend to achieve higher task performance. However, as the organizational size expands, PBOs employing a centralized communication network may surpass in task performance. Additionally, we found that with the expansion of organizational size, bootleg innovation behaviors of organizational members are continually stimulated, further enhancing collective task performance. This study, based on the evolution of communication network parameters, explores the structural characteristics of organizational communication networks and the mechanisms underlying the emergence of bootleg innovation behaviors. It delineates the key pathways for improving collective task performance. The findings can provide a scientific reference for the organizational evolution and development of engineering project management.