ArticleFrontiers in psychology2025
How can ethical leadership increase employees' bootlegging innovation behavior in China?: a serial mediation model of psychological wellbeing and psychological entitlement.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Coaching Leadership and Employees' Bootlegging Innovation Behavior in Chinese High-Tech Enterprises.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Ethical leadership and eudaimonic well-being at work: the roles of organizational identification and caring ethical climate.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- "Underground innovation" in the digital age: how digital leadership promotes employee bootlegging through psychological empowerment.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Influence of leader humility on bootlegging innovative behavior-a serial mediation model of work attention and thriving at work.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
Bootlegging innovation behavior poses challenges to organizational management but significantly contributes to development and innovation. The relationship between leadership style and bootlegging innovation behavior is particularly noteworthy. Ethical leadership often instills a sense of reliability and integrity in employees, fostering trust and reciprocity, which benefits both leaders and the organization. To investigate how ethical leadership enhances employees' willingness to innovate and engage in innovative behavior, this study collected survey data from 382 private-sector employees in southeast China. The findings revealed a positive correlation between ethical leadership and bootlegging innovation behavior. Furthermore, psychological wellbeing and psychological entitlement were found to mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and bootlegging innovation behavior. The integrity and inclusiveness demonstrated by ethical leadership help employees feel valued, enhancing their psychological wellbeing. This, in turn, increases their psychological entitlement and willingness to realize their self-worth, making them more inclined to put innovative ideas into practice-even without explicit authorization. The key contribution of this study lies in identifying the chain-mediating effect of psychological wellbeing and psychological entitlement in the relationship between ethical leadership and bootlegging innovation behavior. By exploring this complex and nuanced process, the study provides actionable recommendations for fostering bootlegging innovation behavior among employees. It also broadens the research scope of bootlegging innovation and offers fresh perspectives for future research endeavors.
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