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Why and when innovation performance is available: the role of fell responsibility for constructive change and creative self-efficacy

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Abstract

Combining Gen Z and millennial employee groups, the current study aims to explore the mechanism of felt responsibility for constructive change, taking charge and innovation performance based on the theory of planned behavior and proactive motivation model, and analyzes the moderating effect of creative self-efficacy in it. The results reveal a positive association between felt responsibility for constructive change and taking charge, as well as between taking charge and innovation performance, with taking charge acting as a complete mediator. Moreover, the level of creative self-efficacy influences the relationship between felt responsibility for constructive change, taking charge, and innovation performance. Specifically, employees with high levels of creative self-efficacy demonstrate an accelerated transition from felt responsibility for constructive change to taking charge, thus enhancing innovation performance. Conversely, employees with low levels of creative self-efficacy experience a hindered transformation process from felt responsibility for constructive change to taking charge. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of responsibility awareness in fostering innovation performance, and provide theoretical and practical enlightenment for managers to effectively cultivate employees’ consciousness of responsibility for constructive change, promote active engagement in taking charge and improve innovation performance.

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Data Availability

We have made arranged with the companies that participated in our study to keep our data private but will provide it upon reasonable request. Therefore, the datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (20BGL136).

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All authors contributed to the conception and design of the study. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Bin Liu, Yunayuan Liu, and Claire Marie Cecila Andrianandraina. The initial draft of the manuscript was written by Yunyun Yuan and Pingqing Liu. During the revision process, Yunyun Yuan, Bin Liu, and Pingqing Liu made significant contributions, and all authors provided feedback on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pingqing Liu.

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Yuan, Y., Liu, B., Liu, P. et al. Why and when innovation performance is available: the role of fell responsibility for constructive change and creative self-efficacy. Curr Psychol 43, 10132–10147 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05073-3

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