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Can both entrepreneurial and ethical leadership shape employees’ service innovative behavior?

Giang Hoang (School of Business and Management, RMIT University, Hochiminh City, Vietnam and Victoria University Business School, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia)
Tuan Trong Luu (Swinburne Business School, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia)
Tuan Du (Global Strategy Group, KPMG Vietnam, Hochiminh City, Vietnam)
Thuy Thu Nguyen (Faculty of Business Administration, Foreign Trade University, Hanoi, Vietnam and Department of Higher Education, Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training, Hanoi, Vietnam)

Journal of Services Marketing

ISSN: 0887-6045

Article publication date: 15 April 2022

Issue publication date: 23 March 2023

1847

Abstract

Purpose

Employee’s service innovative behavior lays the groundwork for bottom-up innovation and ongoing service improvement in service firms. Therefore, it is vital for service organizations to understand the antecedents of employees service innovative behavior. Drawing upon the social cognitive theory, this study aims to develop a research model that examines the effects of ethical and entrepreneurial leadership on service innovative behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 178 managers and 415 employees working in 178 small- and medium-sized (SME) hotels in Vietnam.

Findings

The findings showed that ethical leadership has direct and indirect effects on service innovative behavior, while entrepreneurial leadership only influences service innovative behavior via intrinsic motivation. In addition, trust in leader moderates the effect of intrinsic motivation on service innovative behavior

Research limitations/implications

The study advances current scholarly research on leadership by combining the two areas of entrepreneurial and ethical leadership into one theoretical model and examines how these leadership styles generate hospitality employees’ service innovative behavior through the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation and the moderating effect of trust in leader.

Practical implications

The findings of this research offer significant implications for SME hotels and their managers. In their recruitment processes, hotels should search for particular personality traits, which have been found to predict ethical and entrepreneurial leadership. Hospitality firms also need to encourage communication between leaders and co-workers to enhance employees’ intrinsic motivation.

Originality/value

There are calls for research to examine whether both entrepreneurial and ethical leadership styles can be integrated to enhance employees’ positive outcomes. Evidence about the mechanism linking entrepreneurial and ethical leadership to service innovative behavior is limited. With this stated, the current study makes significant contribution to leadership and innovation literature by filling in these voids.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under grant number 502.02–2020.328. The authors would like to thank the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable and constructive comments. The authors also thank Dr Lan Le and Mr Lam Hoang for their assistance during data collection.

Funding: This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under grant number 502.02–2020.328.

Citation

Hoang, G., Luu, T.T., Du, T. and Nguyen, T.T. (2023), "Can both entrepreneurial and ethical leadership shape employees’ service innovative behavior?", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 446-463. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-07-2021-0276

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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