ORIGINAL RESEARCH

published: 31 July 2020

doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01853

Analysis of the Influence of

Entrepreneur’s Psychological Capital
on Employee’s Innovation Behavior
Under Leader-Member Exchange
Relationship
Tingyi Li 1 , Wei Liang 1,2* , Zhijian Yu 3 and Xin Dang 4
1
School of Business Administration, Wonkwang University, Iksan, South Korea, 2 College of Humanities, Shandong
Agriculture and Engineering University, Jinan, China, 3 School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Renmin
University of China, Beijing, China, 4 College of International Business, Shandong Technology and Business University,
Yantai, China

How to make use of leaders’ psychological capital to improve the innovation behavior of
employees has become an important issue for the talent management of enterprises
Edited by:
Yenchun Jim Wu,
today, and it is also the goal that enterprises must pursue if they want to stand
National Taiwan Normal University, out in fierce competition. Therefore, a total of 154 enterprises in a high-tech area
Taiwan
were selected for questionnaire survey in this study. The correlation between leader-
Reviewed by:
member exchange (LMX) relationship (emotion, loyalty, contribution, and professional
Jiboning Zhang,
Fudan University, China respect), leaders’ psychological capital (confidence, hope, optimism, and tenacity),
Grance Wang, and employees’ innovation behaviors were analyzed based on multivariate regression.
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
Hierarchical regression method was used to examine the mediating effect of the LMX.
*Correspondence:
Wei Liang
It was found that confidence, toughness, and contribution were significantly positively
121932094@qq.com; correlated with employee innovation behavior (p < 0.001). The positive correlation
liangwei1981@wku.ac.kr
between hope, optimism, emotion, and loyalty with employees’ innovation behavior
Specialty section: was significant (p < 0.05). Besides, emotion, loyalty, and contribution had mediating
This article was submitted to effects on the leaders’ psychological capital and the innovation behavior of employees.
Organizational Psychology,
In conclusion, leaders’ psychological capital can have a significant positive effect on the
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Psychology innovation behavior of employees directly, and it can also have an indirect positive effect
Received: 23 April 2020 on the innovation behavior of employees by maintaining high quality LMX.
Accepted: 06 July 2020
Published: 31 July 2020 Keywords: LMX relationship, psychological capital of leaders, employee innovation behavior, hierarchical
regression method, multiple regression analysis
Citation:
Li T, Liang W, Yu Z and Dang X
(2020) Analysis of the Influence
of Entrepreneur’s Psychological
INTRODUCTION
Capital on Employee’s Innovation
Behavior Under Leader-Member
With the development of economic globalization, the biggest competitive advantage of a modern
Exchange Relationship. enterprise is not cost saving and product quality, nor talent, but talent management and
Front. Psychol. 11:1853. organization (Wang et al., 2014; Trinchero et al., 2019). As Ren Zhengfei, President of Huawei,
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01853 once said, “Talents are not the core competitiveness of Huawei, but the ability to effectively manage

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Li et al. Influence of Entrepreneur’s Psychological Capital

talents is the core competitiveness of an enterprise. This is the variables LMX, leader’s psychological capital, and employee’s
core talent concept that enables the Huawei team to maintain a innovation behavior were analyzed. The correlation between
high level of creativity, and it is also what we need to learn from LMX, leader’s psychological capital, and employee’s innovation
now” (Arasli et al., 2020). When it comes to the management behavior was analyzed by multiple regression. The hierarchical
of employees, leaders must be involved. A good entrepreneur’s regression method was used to examine the mediating effect of
psychological capital can not only improve the leader’s self- the LMX between the psychological capital of the leader and the
consciousness, self-adjustment, and self-development ability but innovation behavior of the employee, so as to comprehensively
also have a trickle-down effect on the subordinate’s psychological evaluate the influence of the psychological capital of the leader
state, and enhance the subordinate’s psychological capital (Niu on the innovation behavior of the employee.
et al., 2018; Shen et al., 2019; Wu and Wu, 2019). Psychological
capital is a concept proposed and extended to the field of
human resources by Luthans, a famous American scholar, in LITERATURE REVIEW
2004. As a special intangible resource, it has become one of
the highlights among many factors affecting the occurrence of At present, many domestic and foreign scholars have analyzed
enterprises. It is a core psychological element beyond human the relationship between LMX and the innovation of employees.
capital and social capital and can promote personal growth and Carnevale et al. (2017) made a retrospective analysis of the
performance improvement (Chen, 2020; Montani et al., 2020). research results of LMX and sound (37 samples), creativity (53
Therefore, in actual business operation, it is very important to samples), and innovative behavior (29 samples) and concluded
pay attention to the development of psychological capital of that LMX was more associated with innovative behavior than
leaders and employees. it was with sound or creativity. Lukes and Stephan (2017)
In recent years, according to many studies, psychological developed a model of employee innovation behavior and
capital reveals that in order to improve the overall performance conceptualized it as a multifaceted behavior that was different
and competitive advantage of enterprises, leaders can improve from the output of innovation, and found that the behavior
the innovation performance of employees by improving their of innovation output changed greatly after the introduction of
psychological capital (Lee, 2019; Muldoon et al., 2019; Yoon and high-quality LMX relationship. Cha and Borchgrevink (2018)
Kim, 2019). Mishra et al. (2019) investigated the relationship collected data of 452 employees working in 31 different
of psychological capital and leadership support in promoting service organizations, and the multi-group structural equation
innovative work behavior among 398 service sector employees, model analysis showed that the LMX relationship had a great
and found that the leader support is directly related to the influence on employee innovation. Bruccoleri and Riccobono
innovation behavior, and the psychological capital completely (2018) discussed the complex influence of objective practice
mediated between the leader support and the innovation work management on employees’ innovative behaviors and found that
behavior. Slåtten et al. (2019) examined the relationship between the unconscious incentive path linked the quality of leader-
psychological capital, social capital, and job performance and follower relationship with employees’ innovative behaviors
found that psychological capital was directly related to innovation through appropriate performance evaluation strategies. However,
behavior, job involvement, and sales performance, and both studies on the relationship between psychological capital and
structural and relational dimensions were directly related to employee innovation were almost limited to employees’ own
psychological dimensions. Safavi and Bouzari (2019) collected psychological capital (Bruccoleri and Riccobono, 2018). Kim
data related to psychological capital, occupational innovation, et al. (2018) proposed to take psychological capital as part
and occupational competency characteristics from 193 front-line of the mediating variable of the impact of psychological
employees and concluded that there was a significant relationship contract violation on service innovation behavior, and the
between psychological capital and occupational innovation, and structural equation model revealed that the development of
occupational adaptability regulated the relationship between psychological capital activated employees’ service innovation
psychological capital and occupational innovation. Leader- behavior. Guo et al. (2018) discussed the influence of employees’
member exchange (LMX) (Qureshi et al., 2020), an important psychological capital on their creativity, and drew a conclusion
leadership theory, has attracted much attention in recent years. that when psychological capital was relatively high, it can regulate
As one of the major factors in the organization, theoretical employees’ fear and creativity. Mishra et al. (2019) examined
or empirical studies on the relationship between superior and the relationship between two-way work-family enrichment,
subordinate in Chinese enterprises need to be further developed. psychological capital, and executive support in promoting
At present, there are few reports on the exchange of leader- innovative work behavior, and found that psychological capital
member relationship in China. Therefore, it is novel to start was completely mediated between bidirectional enrichment and
with LMX theory. innovative work behavior.
To sum up, there are many researches on the innovation To sum up, most of the current researches on psychological
ability of employees in enterprises, but most of them focus on capital were focused on the employees themselves, while the
the psychological capital of employees, and there is little analysis leader’s psychological capital was rarely involved. There was
from the perspective of psychological capital of leaders. Based little research on LMX relationship, leader’s psychological capital,
on this, 154 enterprises in high-tech area were selected for and employee’s innovative behavior. Therefore, based on the
questionnaire survey. The differences of different demographic LMX relationship, the regulating mechanism of the psychological

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Li et al. Influence of Entrepreneur’s Psychological Capital

capital of leaders on the innovation behavior of employees was TABLE 2 | Basic information of the tested employees.
explored, so as to develop the theoretical basis for improving the
Variable Classification Number of the Proportion
innovation of employees. samples (%)

Staff Manager 106 29.86

MATERIALS AND METHODS Ordinary employee 249 70.14
Age 18–30 160 46.38
Samples and Data Collection 30–40 129 37.41
At the individual level, the relationship among leaders’ 40–55 56 16.21
psychological capital, employees’ innovation behavior, and LMX Education Junior college 96 27.86
background
relationship was explored. Considering that knowledge-based Bachelor degree 186 53.84
young people are more likely to accept new things, good Master degree and above 63 18.30
at learning, and have many new ideas, leaders prefer young Gender Male 162 47.04
knowledge-based employees with certain work experience in the Female 183 52.96
sample selection. In this study, 154 enterprises in a high-tech Marriage status Married 246 71.36
region were randomly selected through the Internet to issue Unmarried 99 28.64
questionnaires. A total of 416 questionnaires were distributed and
378 were recovered. After invalid data was removed, there were
345 valid copies, with a recovery efficiency of 82.93%. There are many
Mass Subordinate
This survey involved a wide range of industries, large and Subordinate exchange interactions
1
small enterprises, and had a certain universality and promotion 3
Subordinate
significance. As shown in Table 1, in terms of the nature of Subordinate Trust 2
enterprises, private enterprises account for the most (42.18%), 4 Economic Leader
exchange Subordinate
followed by state-owned enterprises (36.88%). In terms of Subordinate 3
the industries to which the enterprises belong, the Internet 5 Right
Members of
industry accounted for the most (42.07%), followed by the Outside relation Support
the circle
service industry (26.37%). In terms of the number of employees, member
the enterprises with 1–300 employees account for the most
(51.68%), followed by the enterprises with 300–999 employees FIGURE 1 | Structure diagram of LMX theory.
(30.72%); in other words, there were mainly small and medium-
sized enterprises.
The demographic characteristics of the selected samples were
the number of married employees was higher, accounting
shown in Table 2. Among them, there were 106 managers
for 71.36%, while the number of unmarried employees was
and 249 ordinary employees. In terms of gender, the ratios of
lower (28.64%).
males (52.96%) and females (47.04%) were not much different.
In terms of age, employees were generally under 40 years old.
The proportion of employees aged 18–30 years was the largest LMX Theory
(46.38%), followed by those aged 30–40 years (37.41%). In Leader-member exchange theory (Choi, 2020) was first proposed
terms of education background, employees with bachelor’s degree by George Graen and Uhl-bien in 1976. It refers to a kind
accounted for the most (53.84%), and those with master’s degree of close relationship between leaders and employees cultivated
or above accounted for the least (18.30%). In terms of marriage, through a series of exploration, observation, and interaction. As
shown in Figure 1, when the relationship between the leader and
the employee is relatively close, that is, the high-quality LMX
TABLE 1 | Basic information of tested enterprises. relationship and the connection between the two parties not
only depends on the basic economic exchange, but also involves
Variables Classification Number of Proportion (%)
samples the emotional exchange. Employees have more autonomy and
development opportunities, they are more active and active
Nature of the Private 65 42.18 when they obey leaders, and they can use their best talents to
enterprises Foreign-invested 32 20.94
complete work tasks. They are called “in the circle” members. The
State-owned 57 36.88
low-quality LMX relationship is mainly based on the exchange
Industries the Internet 65 42.07
of materials based on the power system. The psychological
enterprises belong
Real state 35 22.84 distance between superiors and subordinates is relatively long,
to
Service 41 26.37 and they seldom get extra reward and opportunities from leaders.
Other 13 8.72 Such employees are called “out-of-circle” members. Psychological
Number of 1–300 80 51.68 research has found that the level of LMX relationship affects
employees
300–999 47 30.72 the work efficiency and innovation behavior of employees to
More than 999 27 17.60 a certain extent.

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Li et al. Influence of Entrepreneur’s Psychological Capital

Establishment of the Relation Model Contribu Professional

Although there are many researches on the innovation behavior Emotion Loyalty
tion respect
of employees, few analyses on the relationship between leaders
and subordinates in China have been made. What role does the
relationship exchange between leaders and employees play in Leader member
employee innovation behavior? Does the psychological capital of exchange theory
Confidence
leaders directly influence the innovation behavior of employees
significantly? These relationships are unclear.
Hope
Some psychology-based studies have shown that leaders Leadership Employee innovation
with a high level of psychological capital are more likely Psychological Capital behavior
Optimistic
to gain the respect and support of their subordinates, and
thus are more likely to establish a good relationship between
Toughness
superiors and subordinates. As a project that requires a lot
of time and energy, innovation often requires individuals to
have higher self-confidence and ability to work under pressure. FIGURE 2 | The relational model of leader psychological capital, employee
A good leader can give enough trust and encouragement innovation behavior, and LMX.
to subordinates and provide a good innovation environment
and conditions for employees (Gu et al., 2019). Based on
this, a relationship model among the three variables of leader the enterprise employees. The internal consistency coefficient of
psychological capital, employee innovation behavior, and LMX the scale was 0.844. The results of confirmatory factor analysis
relationship was established. In this model, the psychological showed that all the fitting indexes were within the acceptable
capital of leaders (confidence, hope, optimism, and toughness) range, and the scale had good structural validity. According to
can directly influence the innovation behavior of employees, the reliability and validity test, the Cronbach’s coefficient α was
and it can also indirectly influence the innovation behavior 0.854, and each test question was significantly correlated with the
of employees by changing the exchange relationship of leaders total score at the level of 0.01 (bilateral).
(emotion, loyalty, contribution, and professional respect), as
shown in Figure 2 below. LMX Scale
The LMX scale (Odoardi et al., 2019) revised by Wang et al.
Scale Tools (2014) according to the actual situation in China was adopted
Leaders’ Psychological Capital Scale to evaluate the LMX. The scale contained four dimensions of
The leaders’ psychological capital scale proposed by Luthans et al. emotion, loyalty, contribution, and professional respect, and
(2010) and Liao et al. (2019) was adopted to evaluate leaders. The provided a total of 16 test items, each of which had four
scale contained four dimensions of confidence, hope, optimism, items. Likert 5-grade rating system was adopted, and 1–5 points,
and resilience, with a total of 20 items. Likert 5-grade rating respectively indicated strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree,
system was adopted, in which 1–5 points, respectively indicated and strongly agree. The higher the score was, the better the LMX
strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and strongly agree. The was. The internal consistency coefficients of emotion, loyalty,
higher the score was, the higher the psychological capital level contribution, and professional respect with the overall scale were
of the leader was. The internal consistency reliability coefficients 0.784, 0.816, 0.797, and 0.862, respectively. According to the
of the scale with the four dimensions of the scale, namely, reliability and validity test, the Cronbach’s coefficient α was 0.890,
confidence, hope, optimism, and toughness were 0.871, 0.858, and each test question was significantly correlated with the total
0.931, and 0.915, respectively. According to the reliability and score at the level of 0.01 (bilateral).
validity test, the Cronbach’s coefficient α was 0.872, and each test
question was significantly correlated with the total score at the Statistical Analysis
level of 0.01 (bilateral). SPSS19.0 statistical software was used for data processing
in this study, and the measurement data was expressed as
Employee Innovation Behavior Scale mean ± standard deviation (x ± s). The t-test of independent
Employee Innovation Behavior scale was a concept containing sample was used to analyze the differences of leaders’
many contents. From the perspective of individual traits, it psychological capital, employees’ innovative behavior, and
is a willingness to change the status quo of individuals. The exchange relationship between leaders and members in different
employee innovation behavior scale (Lee, 2019) proposed by genders and marriages. Also, group t-test was used to analyze
Zhang Zhengang in 2016 was adopted to evaluate the innovation the differences of leaders’ psychological capital, employees’
of enterprise employees. This scale was a single dimension scale, innovative behavior, and exchange relationship between leaders
which conformed to the actual situation of Chinese enterprises. and members in different educational backgrounds and ages.
There were eight test items in total. Likert 5-grade rating system In addition, Spearman correlation and multiple regression
was adopted, and 1–5 points, respectively indicated strongly were used to analyze the pairwise relationship between leader’s
disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and strongly agree. The higher psychological capital, employee innovation behavior, and leader
the score was, the higher the level of innovation behavior of member exchange relationship. Furthermore, hierarchical

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Li et al. Influence of Entrepreneur’s Psychological Capital

A 35
Male

Leader's Psychological Capital

Female
28

21

14

0
s
i denc
e Hope pti mi sti c oughnes
C onf O T

B 40 C 55
Male
Employeeinnovationbehavior

Female
44
30
33
20

LMX
22

10
11

0 0
n ty n
Male Female Emotio L oyal ontr ibutio nal r espect
C
r o f essio
P

FIGURE 3 | The difference of psychological capital, employee’s innovation behavior, and LMX among leaders of different genders. Panel (A) was confidence, hope,
optimism, and resilience; panel (B) was innovative behavior of employees; panel (C) was affection, loyalty, contribution, and professional respect.

regression method was used to analyze the mediating effect professional respect between married and unmarried people
of the dimensions of emotion, loyalty, and contribution (p > 0.05).
on the psychological capital of leadership, emotion, and
employee innovation. Difference Analysis of Different Educational
Background
As shown in Figure 5, variance test was used to analyze
RESULTS the differences in psychological capital, employee innovation
behavior, and LMX with different educational degrees. There
Analysis of Differences Among was no significant difference in the psychological capital of
Demographic Variables leaders and LMX with different educational degrees (p > 0.05).
Analysis of Gender Differences Moreover, the evaluation of innovation behavior of employees
As shown in Figure 3, t-test was used to analyze the differences with a master’s degree or above was significantly higher than that
in psychological capital, employee innovation behavior, and LMX with a bachelor’s degree or less, and the difference was statistically
among leaders of different genders. There was no significant significant (p < 0.05). What’s more, the evaluation of innovation
difference between men and women in each dimension of leaders’ behavior of employees with a bachelor’s degree was significantly
psychological capital, employees’ innovation behavior, and LMX higher than that with a college degree or less, and the difference
(p > 0.05). was statistically significant (p < 0.05).

The Difference Analysis of Different Marital Status Analysis of Age Differences

As shown in Figure 4, t-test was used to analyze the differences As shown in Figure 6, variance test was used to analyze
in psychological capital of leaders with different marital status, the differences of psychological capital, employee innovation
innovation behavior of employees, and LMX. The score of behavior, and LMX of different ages. The psychological capital
married people in the dimension of leader’s psychological capital of leaders aged 18–30 was significantly higher in the dimensions
toughness was significantly higher than that of unmarried people of confidence, hope, and optimism than those aged more than
(p < 0.05). The scores of emotion, loyalty, and contribution of 30, and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05).
married people were significantly higher than that of unmarried The innovation behavior of employees aged 18–30 years was
people (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in significantly higher than those aged more than 30 years, and the
confidence, optimism, hope, employee innovation behavior, and difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The LMX aged

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Li et al. Influence of Entrepreneur’s Psychological Capital

FIGURE 4 | Differences in psychological capital of leaders, innovation behavior of employees, LMX with different marital status. Panel (A) was confidence, hope,
optimism, and resilience; panel (B) was innovative behavior of employees; panel (C) was affection, loyalty, contribution, and professional respect. * indicated that
compared with married people, the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05).

18–30 was significantly higher than those aged more than 30 in Correlation Between Employee Innovation Behavior
terms of affection and professional respect, and the difference was and LMX
statistically significant (p < 0.05). Table 5 is the Spearman correlation analysis of LMX and
employee innovation behavior. There was a significant positive
correlation between LMX emotion, loyalty, and contribution and
Correlation Analysis Between Variables employee innovation behavior (p < 0.001). The result shows
The Correlation Between Leader’s Psychological that LMX professional respect was positively correlated with
Capital and Employee’s Innovation Behavior employee innovation behavior (p < 0.05).
Table 3 shows the Spearman correlation analysis of four
dimensions of confidence, hope, optimism, and resilience of
leaders’ psychological capital and employee innovation behavior. Regression Analysis Between Variables
There was a significant positive correlation between the total Regression Analysis of Leader’s Psychological
score of psychological capital, self-confidence, and toughness of Capital and Employee’s Innovation Behavior
leaders and the innovative behavior of employees (p < 0.001). In As shown in Table 6, the multivariate regression analysis was
addition, the dimensions of hope and optimism were positively conducted taking dimensions of psychological capital of leaders –
correlated with employee innovation behavior (p < 0.05). confidence, hope, optimism, and toughness – as independent
variables, and age (2 for 18–30 years old, 1 for 30–40 years
old, and 0 for 40–50 years old), gender (1 for male, and 0 for
The Correlation Between Psychological Capital of female), marital status (1 for married, and 0 for unmarried),
Leaders and LMX educational background (2 for master’s degree or above, 1 for
Table 4 is the Spearman correlation analysis between each bachelor’s degree, and 0 for junior college or below) as the control
dimension of leaders’ psychological capital and LMX. The variables, and employee innovation behavior as an independent
total score, confidence, optimism, and toughness of leaders’ variable. Confidence and toughness had a very significant positive
psychological capital were positively correlated with emotion, correlation with employee innovation behavior (p < 0.001).
loyalty, contribution, and professional respect of LMX Hope and optimism were positively correlated with employee
(p < 0.001). The hope dimension was positively correlated innovation behavior (p < 0.05). The control variables of age
with LMX dimensions of affection, loyalty, contribution, and and educational background had significant predictive effects on
professional respect (p < 0.05). employees’ innovation behavior (p < 0.05).

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Li et al. Influence of Entrepreneur’s Psychological Capital

FIGURE 5 | Differences in psychological capital, employee innovation behavior, and LMX of leaders with different educational degrees. Panel (A) was confidence,
hope, optimism, and resilience; panel (B) was innovative behavior of employees; panel (C) was affection, loyalty, contribution, and professional respect. * indicated
that the difference was statistically significant compared with master’s degree and below (p < 0.05). # indicated that there was a statistically significant difference
compared with bachelor’s degree (p < 0.05).

The Regression Analysis of LMX and Employee The Mediating Effect of LMX in Leading
Innovation Behavior Psychological Capital and Employee
As shown in Table 7, LMX emotion, loyalty, contribution, and
professional respect were taken as independent variables, the age,
Innovation Behavior
According to the requirements of this study, the hierarchical
gender, marital status, and educational background as control
regression method (Hussain and Shahzad, 2019) was used to
variables, and employee innovation behavior as dependent
test the mediating effect of LMX on the psychological capital of
variables for multivariate regression analysis. Contribution had
leaders and the innovation behavior of employees. The regression
a very significant positive correlation with employee innovation
analysis revealed that the dimension of professional respect did
behavior (p < 0.001). Emotion and loyalty had significant positive
not have a significant positive correlation with the innovation
correlation with employees’ innovation behavior (p < 0.05).
behavior of employees (p > 0.05), so only the dimensions of
The control variables age and educational background had
emotion, loyalty, and contribution needed to be analyzed as
significant predictive effects on employees’ innovation behavior
mediating variables.
(p < 0.05).
Mediating Effect Analysis of Emotion
The Regression Analysis of Leadership Psychological As shown in Table 9, with employee innovation behavior as
Capital and LMX the dependent variable, emotion and psychological capital of
As shown in Table 8, the dimensions of psychological capital leaders were put into the regression equation for analysis.
confidence, hope, optimism, and toughness of leaders were The psychological capital and emotion of leaders had a very
taken as independent variables, and age, gender, marital status, significant positive influence on the innovation behavior of
and educational background were taken as control variables. employees (p < 0.001), and the significance level of the model
LMX total score was taken as dependent variables for multiple remained the same.
regression analysis. Confidence, hope, optimism, and resilience
were significantly positively correlated with LMX (p < 0.001). Mediating Effect Analysis of Loyalty
Age and educational background were significant predictors of As shown in Table 10, with employees’ innovation behavior
LMX (p < 0.05). as the dependent variable, loyalty and psychological capital

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Li et al. Influence of Entrepreneur’s Psychological Capital

FIGURE 6 | Differences in psychological capital, employee innovation behavior, and LMX of leaders with different ages. Panel (A) was confidence, hope, optimism,
and resilience; panel (B) was innovative behavior of employees; panel (C) was affection, loyalty, contribution, and professional respect. * meant that the difference
was statistically significant compared with those aged 18–30 (p < 0.05); # indicated that there was a statistically significant difference compared with those aged
30–40 (p < 0.05).

TABLE 3 | Spearman correlation between each dimension of leader’s psychological capital and employee’s innovation behavior.

Variables Confidence Hope Optimism Toughness Total score of psychological capital

Innovation behavior of employees 0.769** 0.511* 0.471* 0.648** 0.539**

**p < 0.001, *p < 0.05.

TABLE 4 | Spearman correlation between leader’s psychological capital and LMX.

Variables Confidence Hope Optimism Toughness The total score of psychological capital

Emotion 0.615** 0.538* 0.479** 0.632** 0.832**

Loyalty 0.534** 0.614* 0.531** 0.582** 0.518**
Contribution 0.672** 0.458* 0.628** 0.607** 0.677**
Professional respect 0.648** 0.516* 0.711** 0.514** 0.652**

**p < 0.001, *p < 0.05.

TABLE 5 | Spearman correlation between LMX and employee innovation behavior.

Variables Emotion Loyalty Contribution Professional respect

Innovation behavior of employees 0.639** 0.587* 0.782* 0.437*

**p < 0.001, *p < 0.05.

of leaders were put into the regression equation for analysis. Mediating Effect Analysis of Contributions
The psychological capital and loyalty of leaders had a very As shown in Table 11, with the innovation behavior of employees
significant positive effect on the innovation behavior of as the dependent variable, the contribution and the psychological
employees (p < 0.001), and the significance level of the model capital of leaders were put into the regression equation for
remained the same. analysis. The psychological capital and contribution of leaders

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Li et al. Influence of Entrepreneur’s Psychological Capital

TABLE 6 | Regression analysis of leader’s psychological capital and employee’s innovation behavior.

Variable Regression coefficient T value p F value R2

Dependent variables Confidence 0.731 5.518 0.000 163.750 0.816

Hope 0.482 5.783 0.008
Optimism 0.407 3.638 0.014
Toughness 0.631 5.952 0.000
Control variables Gender 0.326 2.116 0.085
Age 0.471 5.376 0.015
Educational degree 0.539 4.842 0.023
Marriage 0.117 2.628 0.056

TABLE 7 | The regression analysis of LMX and employee innovation behavior.

Variable Regression coefficient T value p F value R2

Variable Emotion 0.518 4.852 0.011 247.710 0.648

Loyalty 0.573 5.892 0.008
Contribution 0.508 4.576 0.000
Professional respect 0.231 3.152 0.063
Control variable Gender 0.284 1.776 0.061
Age 0.452 5.376 0.008
Educational degree 0.631 5.717 0.016
Marriage 0.255 1.562 0.052

TABLE 8 | The regression analysis of leadership psychological capital and LMX.

Variable Regression coefficient T value P F value R2

Variable Confidence 0.711 6.472 0.000 183.550 0.748

Hope 0.684 6.735 0.000
Optimism 0.716 5.084 0.000
Toughness 0.752 5.873 0.000
Control variable Gender 0.310 2.416 0.052
Age 0.663 4.572 0.012
Educational degree 0.539 6.731 0.017
Marriage 0.164 1.742 0.067

TABLE 9 | Hierarchical regression analysis of mediating effect of emotion.

Variable Regression coefficient T value p F value R2

Variable Psychological capital 0.538 6.165 0.000 159.660 0.185

Mediating variable Emotion 0.517 5.742 0.000
Control variable Gender 0.261 2.852 0.057
Age 0.577 4.888 0.009
Educational degree 0.482 6.152 0.016
Marriage 0.162 1.592 0.074

had a very significant positive effect on the innovation behavior the lead, it is necessary to attach importance to innovation.
of employees (p < 0.001), and the significance level of the model Among them, the innovation of employees is one of the
remained the same. important driving forces for the development of enterprises,
and it is also a research hotspot in organizational behavior.
It is also the focus of many scholars to guide employees’
DISCUSSION innovation behavior by relying on the improvement of leaders’
psychological capital (Mohamad et al., 2019). Therefore, the
Nowadays, the competition among enterprises is extremely staff of several enterprises in a high-tech region were analyzed.
fierce. In order to stand firm in the industry and even take Firstly, in terms of demographic variables, the scores of the

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Li et al. Influence of Entrepreneur’s Psychological Capital

TABLE 10 | Hierarchical regression analysis of the mediating effect of loyalty.

Variable Regression coefficient T value p F value R2

Independent variable Psychological variable 0.672 5.382 0.000 241.770 0.152

Mediating variable Loyalty 0.582 5.886 0.000
Control variable Gender 0.172 2.173 0.062
Age 0.573 6.582 0.012
Educational degree 0.516 6.537 0.011
Marriage 0.168 1.431 0.054

TABLE 11 | Hierarchical regression analysis of mediating effects of contributions.

Variable Regression coefficient T value p F value R2

Independent variable Psychological capital 0.822 7.472 0.000 247.720 0.167

Mediating variable Contribution 0.662 6.728 0.000
Control variable Gender 0.199 1.528 0.085
Age 0.641 4.729 0.017
Educational degree 0.551 6.076 0.025
Marriage 0.175 1.468 0.056

psychological capital resilience and LMX affection, loyalty, and positive influence on the innovation behavior of employees,
contribution of married leaders were significantly higher than and the influence of confidence and toughness was relatively
those of unmarried leaders (p < 0.05). This was consistent big. Contribution had a very significant positive correlation
with the research results of Jnaneswar (2019), indicating that with employee innovation behavior (p < 0.001). Emotion and
married people were more able to bear the work due to the loyalty had a significant positive correlation with employee
impact of family responsibilities and pay more attention to the innovation behavior (p < 0.05), which was the same as the
existing job opportunities. However, there was no significant research results of Opoku et al. (2020), indicating LMX was a
difference in the innovation behavior of employees (p > 0.05). significant positive predictor of employee innovation behavior,
The reason may be that the innovation behavior of employees and its contribution was the strongest. On the other hand, there
was more dependent on personal professional knowledge, skills, was no significant correlation between professional respect and
and thinking ability, and can’t be changed simply because of employee innovation behavior (p > 0.05). The reason may be that
marriage, which was consistent with the actual situation (Javed professional respect was more reflected in the recognition and
et al., 2019). The evaluation of innovation behavior of employees support of employees to leaders and professional competence of
with a master’s degree or above was significantly higher than that enterprises (Jung and Yoon, 2019). Confidence, hope, optimism,
with a bachelor’s degree or less (p < 0.05). This was completely and resilience were significantly positively correlated with LMX
contrary to the conclusion of Eisenberger et al. (2019) that (p < 0.001), indicating that leadership psychological capital
employees with bachelor’s degrees had higher innovation ability had a significant predictive effect on LEX. In addition, the
than those with master’s degree. The reason for the analysis may hierarchical regression method was also used in this study to
be that the enterprises selected in this study were mainly in test the mediating effect of LMX on the psychological capital
the Internet industry, and the employees with master’s degree of leaders and the innovation behavior of employees (Wang
or above undertook more sophisticated tasks and had higher et al., 2019). The results showed that the dimensions of emotion,
innovation. Psychological capital (confidence, hope, optimism), loyalty, and contribution had a major mediating effect between
employee innovation behavior, and LMX (emotion, professional the psychological capital of leaders and the innovative behavior
respect) of leaders aged 18–30 were higher than those aged more of employees, which indicated that situational factors related to
than 30 (p ( <0.05). This was because 18–30 year olds paid more leaders can have a potential impact on the effectiveness of leaders.
attention to their relationship with their leader and had a better The interaction between leaders and employees was actually
perception of innovation. the process of leadership. There were differences in the quality
In order to analyze the relationship between LMX, of leader-member relationships. High-quality relationships can
psychological capital of leaders, and innovation behavior of have a positive impact, while low-quality relationships can have
employees, it was found using multiple regression analysis a negative impact, so relationship-oriented relationships may be
that confidence and resilience had a very significant positive a double-edged sword. Therefore, leaders should not only use
correlation with innovation behavior of employees (p < 0.001). psychological capital to promote employees’ innovative behaviors
Hope and optimism had a significant positive correlation but also pay attention to the maintenance of good relationships
with employee innovation behavior (p < 0.05). This was among employees. To sum up, the relationship model of a
consistent with the results of Özsungur (2019) indicating leader’s psychological capital, LMX relationship, and employee’s
that the psychological capital of leaders had a significant innovation behavior established in this study was valid.

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Li et al. Influence of Entrepreneur’s Psychological Capital

The fundamental purpose of academic research was to apply demographic variables such as age and educational background
theories to real life. Based on the above analysis result, starting has significant predictive effects on employee innovation
from the enterprise management level and actual demand, and behavior. The psychological capital of leaders not only has
aiming at coordinating the enterprise interior relationship, some a significant positive effect on employee innovation behavior
suggestions were put forward to promote employee innovative directly but also produces an indirect positive effect on employee
behavior. At the organizational level, attention should be paid innovation behavior by maintaining high-quality LMX. However,
to the establishment of a harmonious, positive, and coordinated this study mainly adopts a horizontal research to explore the
exchange relationship between leaders and members. The mediating role of LMX in the psychological capital of leadership
relationship between leaders and members will directly affect the and the innovation behavior of employees, and the influence
daily operation of an enterprise. In daily work, it is advisable of time effect is ignored. Therefore, longitudinal studies of a
to organize more group building activities, strengthen the certain time span should be added to enrich the reliability of
relationship between leaders and enterprise members outside the conclusions in the future studies. In sum, this study provides
work, expand the communication channels between employees a theoretical basis for leaders to manage enterprise talents and
and leaders, and at the same time pay attention to create an promote the practical operation of employees’ innovation ability.
atmosphere conducive to innovative work. At the individual
level, leaders should pay attention to the cultivation of their
own interpersonal skills, and especially in the communication DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
of employees, leaders should treat each employee with an equal
attitude, actively abandon the concept of hierarchy, and try their The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be
best to support and understand each other with employees, so made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
as to promote the smooth development of work. For employees,
they also need to respect the daily work of the leader and treat
the leader with a natural attitude. At the same time, they should ETHICS STATEMENT
actively seek for innovation consciousness to develop their brain,
cultivate their own innovation consciousness in practice, get rid The studies involving human participants were reviewed
of the dependence on the supervision of the organization, so as to and approved by the Shandong Agriculture and Engineering
show more innovative behaviors. University and Wonkwang University Ethics Committees. The
patients/participants provided their written informed consent to
participate in this study.

CONCLUSION
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
The hierarchical regression method was used to analyze the
relationship between LMX, psychological capital of leaders, All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual
and innovation behavior of employees. It was found that contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

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jwop2019a12 Copyright © 2020 Li, Liang, Yu and Dang. This is an open-access article distributed
Opoku, M. A., Choi, S.-B., and Kang, S.-W. (2020). Psychological safety in ghana: under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use,
empirical analyses of antecedents and consequences. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original
Health 17:214. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17010214 author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication
Özsungur, F. (2019). Ethical leadership., intrapreneurship., service innovation in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use,
performance and work engagement in chambers of commerce and industry. distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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