Work and innovations: The impact of self-identification on employee bootlegging behaviour

It has long been established in the literature that innovation is imperative for the economic viability and sustainability of organizations, and it is undeniable that employees are a pre-eminent source of innovation. Research has started to acknowledge employee bootlegging behaviour as an innovation potential. Acknowledging the importance of self-motivation to this behaviour and given that identity has profound effect on individual motivation to engage and persist in certain behaviours, this study adopts an identity-based perspective. Accordingly, based on self-consistency theory, we propose employees with strong self-identification with their work may feel as important and capable organizational members-organization-based self-esteem (OBSE). This may result in them engaging in bootlegging behaviour to realize innovative outcomes appreciated by their organizations so as to keep feeling valuable and significant in the organization. To investigate these relationships, we utilize data of 328 various employees collected at two time periods. The results show that OBSE partially mediates the relationship between self-identification and employee bootlegging behaviour. And perceived organization support for creativity (POSC) positively moderates the relationship between OBSE and bootlegging. Based on our findings, implications for managers and academics are discussed along with the direction for future research.