ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Resolving the Paradox of Bootleg Innovation: The Role of Organizational Error Management Climate in Shaping Innovation among New-Generation Employees
Provisionally accepted
- 1China University of Mining and Technology School of Economics and Management, Xuzhou, China
- 2Huaqiao University Business School, Quanzhou, China
- 3Guangzhou University of Applied Science and Technology, zhaoqing, China
- 4Hainan University, Hainan, China
- 5Hainan University International Business School, Haikou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Bootleg innovation, a form of unauthorized yet potentially constructive behavior, has garnered increasing scholarly attention. However, the cognitive and contextual factors influencing its emergence remain underexplored, particularly among new-generation employees. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this research examines how perceptions of an error management climate influence bootleg innovation. We conducted two studies: a three-wave field survey with 387 new-generation employees and a scenario-based experiment with 200 participants. The results show that an error management climate facilitates bootleg innovation by fostering psychological safety. Additionally, employees' regulatory focus moderates this relationship in opposing ways: promotion focus strengthens the connection between psychological safety and bootleg innovation, while defensive focus weakens it. These findings offer practical guidance for organizations seeking to leverage error tolerance and individual motivation to encourage constructive bootlegging.
Keywords: error management climate1, psychological safety2, bootleg innovation3, promotionfocus4, defensive focus5
Received: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Hu, Zhang and Guo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiushen Hu, 944535628@qq.com
Yingying Guo, 1872620953@qq.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.