Contend Structure, Formation Mechanism And Consequence Of Employee Bootleg Innovation

In the 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China general secretary Xi Jinping put forward that innovation is the first driving force for national development in the new era.In this context,stimulating employees' innovation vitality has become an important way to improve the competitive advantage of enterprises.However,in the process of practical innovation practice,the existing resource stock often can't meet all the innovation needs.When the enterprise can't adopt all the innovation ideas,some ideas can't be realized through formal ways.If the employees believe that their ideas will create value for the enterprise,they may be forced to realize it through informal ways.This kind of behavior,which ignores the orders of superiors and practices innovation ideas without permission,is called "bootleg innovation",that is,the behavior that individuals avoid or ignore the rejection of superiors,firmly believe that their creativity will create value for enterprises,and continue to cultivate in an informal way.This behavior can create subversive products for enterprises,lead the future of the industry and promote the development of the times.Because of the value of the bootleg innovation,the academic circles pay more attention to the bootleg innovation and produce some research results one after another:(1)On the measurement of bootleg innovation.Measure before or after the manager knows;(2)On the formation of bootleg innovation.Based on the western management theory,this paper explores the formation of employee bootleg innovation from the aspects of individual characteristics,leadership style and organizational environment;(3)About the consequence of bootleg innovation.Some scholars think that bootleg innovation can improve individual innovation performance under certain conditions,while others think that it is harmful to both individuals and organizations,and there is no unified view.However,the existing research still has the following deficiencies:(1)There are few existing studies to measure employees' bootleg innovation from a dynamic perspective.The existing measurement of bootleg innovation is mostly a staticperspective,and the research mostly takes whether managers know as the dividing point,only explores the bootleg innovation under a certain situation before or after knowing,and the previous research on the structure of bootleg innovation is mostly based on western theory and culture,which is difficult to be embedded in the Chinese cultural background.As a typical cultural feature of China,Confucian culture is the only way to clarify the connotation and structure of Chinese employee bootleg innovation under the influence of Confucian culture.Therefore,the existing measurement of employee bootleg innovation is incomplete,which is not conducive to the accurate understanding of bootleg innovation in academia,and it is difficult to provide effective guidance for the management practice of employee bootleg innovation;(2)There are few existing studies on the effective integration of Chinese local theory and bootleg innovation.Although there are a lot of researches on the formation mechanism of employee bootleg innovation,there is a lack of thinking about the the pattern of difference sequence of Chinese cultural situation.Because no matter the individual factor,the leading factor or the organizational factor,we can't ignore the influence of the local situation,"the pattern of difference sequence" as the basic feature of China's social relations and structure,so only from the perspective of differential order pattern,can we clarify the interaction between China's society and enterprises,as well as the individual's psychological state and behavior performance in it.In particular,there is a lack of in-depth exploration on whether and how to affect the emergence of employee bootleg innovation,which embodies the traditional Chinese culture,such as differential leadership.Therefore,the key factors of employee bootleg innovation can be effectively decoded only by putting differential order pattern in the research of management mode,combining "relationship orientation" and "authority orientation" to explore the factors that stimulate employee bootleg innovation;(3)There are few existing studies on the double-edged sword effect of bootleg innovation.Bootleg innovation is a process of continuous innovation,which is not only a kind of job resource,but also a kind of job demand.So bootleg innovation can bring both positive and negative consequences.Only from the job demand-resource model,can we clarify the double-edged sword results caused byemployee bootleg innovation.According to the job demand-resource model,"motivation process" and "fatigue process" will exist in the organization at the same time.This means that employee bootleg innovation can not be regarded as a positive or negative phenomenon,but should be combined with its implied resource and demand to explore its parallel existence of double-edged sword effect.Only by breaking through the theoretical limit of the paradox of positive and negative effects of bootleg innovation,can we provide management opinions for "developing strengths and avoiding weaknesses";(4)There are few existing studies to interpret and verify the theory of bootleg innovation based on the local cases of China.This research focuses on the employee bootleg innovation,which originates from the structure of foreign organizational context,and lacks systematic research in localization cases.Contend structure,formation mechanism and consequence of employee bootleg innovation in Chinese context are different from those in western countries.Only by mastering and understanding the specific performance of bootleg innovation theory in Chinese organizational context can managers have a correct judgment and understanding of employee bootleg innovation.In order to make up for these shortcomings,this study will introduce local cases in China,which can effectively realize the localization of the concept of bootleg innovation in Chinese management research,enhance the persuasiveness and explanatory power of the research,provide management opinions for employee bootleg innovation.Based on this,this study will carry out four sub studies,including three empirical studies and one case study: Study 1 comprehensively expounds the structure and dimensions of bootleg innovation from the perspective of innovation process and Confucian culture,and revises the measurement scale.On the basis of theoretical analysis,two dimensions of "the sucker" and "a field commander must decide even against king's orders" are extracted.Through semi-structured interview,content analysis and empirical analysis,seven item measurement scales of employee bootleg innovation are formed;Study 2 based on the theory of the pattern of difference sequence,puts forward the formation mechanism model of employee bootleg innovation,and explores the mechanism of differential leadership on employeebootleg innovation,as well as the mediation effect of psychological entitlement in it and the moderating effect of cognitive conflict;Study 3 based on the job demand-resource model,this paper puts forward the consequence of employee bootleg innovation,and explores the mechanism of consequence of employee bootleg innovation: individual innovation performance and turnover intention,as well as the mediation effect of knowledge integration and workload in them and the moderating effect of independent self-construal;Study 4 uses case study to verify the scale,formation mechanism and effect model of employee bootleg innovation in empirical part.This paper explores the specific performance of Wang Xiaochuan team bootleg innovation in Chinese organizations,and validates the models of study 1,study 2 and study 3 through content analysis and causality diagram analysis.Through the above research,the main conclusions are as follows:(1)Bootleg innovation is a multidimensional variable with two-dimensional structure.There are two dimensions in the structure of the scale of employee bootleg innovation in Chinese context,that is to say,to "the sucker" and "a field commander must decide even against king's orders";(2)Identify the special path and condition factors of differential leadership in employee bootleg innovation.It is found that the differential leadership acts on the special path of employee bootleg innovation through psychological entitlement,and cognitive conflict is the condition factor of bootleg innovation caused by psychological entitlement;(3)Identify the special path and condition factors of the positive effect of bootleg innovation.It is found that bootleg innovation acts on individual innovation performance through knowledge integration,and independent self-construal is the condition factor to promote the positive effect of bootleg innovation;(4)Identify the special path and conditions of the negative effects of bootleg innovation.It is found that bootleg innovation acts on turnover intention through workload,and independent self-construal is the condition factor to alleviate the negative effect of bootleg innovation;(5)The specific performance of bootleg innovation theory is found in Chinese organizational context.In the Chinese context,there are differences in the forms,causes and results of employee bootleg innovation from those in western countries.The theoretical contributions of this study are as follows:(1)This paper clarifies the concept,connotation and dimension of bootleg innovation,revises the bootleg innovation scale,deepens the theoretical understanding of bootleg innovation,and provides a theoretical basis for managers to better understand and manage the employee bootleg innovation;(2)Based on the theory of the pattern of difference sequence,this paper reveals the formation mechanism of bootleg innovation,enriches the theoretical research of bootleg innovation,and expands the application scope of the pattern of difference sequence theory;(3)Based on the job demand-resource model,the paper defines the effect and boundary conditions of bootleg innovation,enriches the theoretical research of bootleg innovation,and expands the application scope of job demand-resource model;(4)Based on the Sogou browser development case,this paper interprets and verifies the theory of bootleg innovation in Chinese context,and enriches the theoretical research of bootleg innovation.