Research On Multilevel Effects Of Bootlegging:Antecedents And Influence Mechanisms On Idea Implementation

With the continuous development of new technologies such as Mobile Internet,big data,and artificial intelligence,innovation has increasingly become the cornerstone for companies to maintain their competitive advantage and continue to prosper.In this context,it is an inevitable choice for companies to encourage employees to play their subjective initiative and continuously improve their innovation capabilities.However,in practice,not all ideas of employees can be supported by organizational resources.Only those ideas that are considered to have potential value and can create benefits for the organization can enter the formal innovation process,obtain formal authorization from the organization,and be further implemented.Therefore,when employees' innovation enthusiasm and potential are constantly stimulated,but the organization cannot provide sufficient support for employees due to objective conditions such as resource constraints and process restrictions,employees may turn to bootlegging to achieve innovation.Studies have shown that the phenomenon of bootlegging is becoming more and more common in organizations.In academia,the phenomenon of bootlegging has also aroused the interest of scholars.Although researchers have launched some explorations around bootlegging,these studies are still in their infancy.Through a systematic review of the existing research,it is found that there are mainly the following three limitations.First of all,the current discussion on the formation mechanism of bootlegging does not reflect the uniqueness of bootlegging.When discussing the factors affecting bootlegging,we should carry out more targeted analysis to reveal its unique influencing mechanism.Secondly,whether bootlegging can improve individual innovation performance is not only a theoretical controversy,but also the few empirical results are not the same.In addition,the research on the impact of bootlegging is mainly focused on the individual level,and there is a lack of discussion on the impact of bootlegging at the team level.Taking into account the above three limitations,and based on the existing research,this paper intends to focus on the phenomenon of bootlegging,and discuss the formation mechanism of bootlegging and the multilevel effects of bootlegging.Based on the self-enhancement theory,study I explored the formation mechanism of bootlegging from the perspective of motivation.Through the analysis of 255 leader-subordinate dyads from 74 teams,it is found that employee creativity is positively related to creativity-driven rule-breaking motive,and creativity-driven rule-breaking motive is positively related to employee bootlegging.Creativity-driven rule-breaking motive mediates the relationship between employee creativity and employee bootlegging.In terms of the moderating effect,team constraints have a moderating effect on the relationship between employee creativity and creativity-driven rule-breaking motive,and team constraints also have a moderating effect on the indirect impact of employee creativity on employee bootlegging through creativity-driven rule-breaking motive.Study 2 explored the effect of employee bootlegging on employee idea implementation,and introduced idea validation as the interpretation mechanism.Through the analysis of 301 leader-employee dyads data from 83 teams,it is found that there is a positive correlation between employee bootlegging and idea validation,and there is a positive correlation between idea validation and employee idea implementation.Idea validation mediates the relationship between employee bootlegging and employee idea implementation.Regarding the moderating effect,networking ability has a moderating effect on the relationship between employee bootlegging and idea validation,and networking ability also has a moderating effect on the indirect impact of employee bootlegging on employee idea implementation through idea validation.Study 3 extends the impact of bootlegging to the team level.Through the analysis of 301 leader-employee dyads data from 83 teams,it is found that there exists a negative correlation between average team bootlegging and team coordination and there exists a positive correlation between team coordination and team idea implementation.Team coordination mediates the relationship between average team bootlegging and team idea implementation.In terms of the moderating effect,team experimental culture climate has a moderating effect on the relationship between average team bootlegging and team coordination,and team experimental culture climate has a moderating effect on the indirect effect of average team bootlegging on team idea implementation through team coordination.In addition,this paper not only expands the related research on bootlegging in theory,but also provides valuable guidance for managers to cope with the bootlegging behavior of employees in their daily work.At the same time,at the end of the thesis,the shortcomings of this thesis are also pointed out,and it is hoped that future research can be further improved on this basis.