RESEARCH ON THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEE INNOVATION BEHAVIOR

In the context of digital transformation, organizational leadership is undergoing profound changes, requiring leaders to adopt new approaches to effectively manage technological and environmental complexity. Digital leadership, as an emerging leadership paradigm, has attracted increasing scholarly attention due to its potential to stimulate employees’ innovative behavior. Drawing on cognitive–affective system theory, social cognitive theory, and conservation of resources theory, this study develops a dual-path theoretical model to examine the mechanisms through which digital leadership influences employees’ innovative behavior. Specifically, from a cognitive perspective, digital leadership enhances employees’ innovation self-efficacy, thereby promoting innovative behavior; from an affective perspective, digital leadership alleviates employees’ emotional exhaustion, which in turn fosters innovation. Furthermore, perceived organizational support is introduced as a boundary condition moderating the relationship between digital leadership and employees’ innovative behavior. Empirical analysis based on survey data provides robust support for the proposed hypotheses. The findings enrich digital leadership research and offer important theoretical and practical implications for innovation management in digitalized organizational contexts.