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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1467589
This article is part of the Research Topic Creative Organization Development through Leadership View all 19 articles
A Causal Model of Leader Ethical Behavior and Radical Innovation: The Moderated Mediation effect of Promotion Focus
Provisionally accepted- Gachon University, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea
Innovation is essential for an organization's survival and growth, with radical innovation driving transformative change. Radical innovation is the generation of new ideas that are completely different.By preventing rigidity and fostering economic and organizational development, radical innovation plays a crucial role in business success. However, the mechanisms that promote employees' radical innovation remain underexplored. This study addresses this gap by investigating how leader ethical behavior influences radical innovation, offering a novel perspective on leadership's role in fostering innovation.Unlike prior research, which focuses primarily on ethical leadership's impact on employee ethics, this study highlights its influence on radical innovation. It develops and validates a research model that links leader ethical behavior to radical innovation, emphasizing the mediating role of leader identification and the moderating role of promotion focus. A quantitative approach was employed, analyzing survey data from 371 employees of Chinese SMEs using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results indicate that leader ethical behavior positively impacts both leader identification and radical innovation. Leader identification mediates this relationship, while promotion focus enhances the effects of leader ethical behavior on radical innovation, as well as the impact of leader identification on radical innovation. This study makes a unique contribution to radical innovation research by integrating leader ethical behavior into the innovation discussion, expanding theoretical understanding beyond traditional drivers. The findings provide actionable insights for creating innovative work environments, strengthening leader identification, and increasing employee capacity for radical innovation, ultimately expanding the scope of radical innovation research.
Keywords: Leader ethical behavior, Leader identification, promotion focus, Radical innovation, Relational identification theory, social exchange theory
Received: 20 Jul 2024; Accepted: 24 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhu, Wang and Jin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Le Wang, Gachon University, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea
Xiu Jin, Gachon University, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.