How humble leadership influences the innovation of technology standards: A moderated mediation model

Abstract

Management researchers have paid increasing attention to the role of humble leadership in innovation activities. The underlying mechanisms through which leader humility influences team innovation and outcomes, however, remain unclear. We aim to investigate the impact of humble leadership on the innovation of technology standards via knowledge exchange and combination and job complexity. We apply the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to the survey data from 354 individuals who participated in technology standard innovation activities in China. Our empirical results show that knowledge exchange and combination play a mediating role between humble leadership behavior and the innovation of technology standards. Particularly, we find that job complexity moderates the positive relationship between knowledge exchange and combination and the innovation of technology standards in a nonlinear way. This is the first time that the latent mechanisms of humble leadership have been identified in the innovation of technology standards based on knowledge-based theory.