Ascribed or achieved? The role of birth order on innovative behaviour in the workplace

Abstract

The pathway through which birth order triggers status competition and affects individuals’ subsequent innovative behaviours in the Chinese workplace remains an unexplored topic. To fill this lacuna, this study collected data from China to test the relationships. Findings showed that the first-born siblings tended to have a rational status striving orientation, which mediated the relationship between birth order and exploitative innovative behaviour; later-born siblings, though, were more likely to have an emotional status striving orientation, which weakened the relationship between birth order and exploratory innovative behaviour. Considering that expectations for the future career may affect an individual’s current decision, we also examined the moderating role of relative time distance and found that it strengthened the relationship between status striving orientation and employees’ innovative behaviour. Our study is of practical and theoretical significance by exploring the pathway through which birth order affects employees’ innovative behaviour in the Chinese context.