Motivation‐Driven and Belief‐Empowered: Whether and How Leader Mindfulness Influences Employees' Green Innovation Behavior?

ABSTRACT Employees' green innovation behavior (EGIB) has been regarded as a key driving force for corporate sustainability. However, the underlying mechanisms by which leaders activate EGIB through cognitive restructuring remain unclear, with the potential role of leader mindfulness largely overlooked. Therefore, drawing on social information processing theory, this study examines whether and how leader mindfulness influences EGIB and tests the moderating role of the error management climate. The results, based on 348 pieces of leader‐employee paired data, show that leader mindfulness has a significant facilitating effect on EGIB. However, the pathways through which leader mindfulness operates differ significantly across its dimensions. Awareness and attention directly promote employees' green innovation conception and green innovation practice. In contrast, acceptance exerts its influence indirectly through the dual mediating roles of green creative self‐efficacy and green work motivation. Compared with green work motivation, the mediating effect of green creative self‐efficacy is stronger. Contrary to expectations, the error competence dimension of the error management climate negatively moderates the relationship between leader mindfulness and EGIB. In contrast, the moderating effects of thinking about errors, learning from errors, and error communication are not significant. This study provides practical recommendations for companies on how to promote EGIB through leader mindfulness.