Study of the Impact of Ethical Leadership on Innovation Performance: The Mediating Role of Interaction Equity

Abstract

Based on equity theory, this study constructs the influence mechanism of ethical leadership on innovation performance. This study uses questionnaire surveys to investigate more than 10 enterprises in Hubei, Henan, Hunan, Shanghai, and Beijing, and finally collected 235 valid samples. Using SPSS26.0 and Mplus7.4, hierarchical regression analysis is used to verify the hypotheses put forward in this study. Finally, a total of four conclusions are obtained. First, ethical leadership has a positive effect on employees' innovation performance. Second, interaction equity mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' innovation performance. Third, leader-member exchange(LMX) positively moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and interaction equity. That is, the higher the degree of LMX, the stronger the positive influence of ethical leadership on interaction equity is. Fourth, LMX moderates the mediating role of interaction equity between ethical leadership and innovation performance. That is, the higher the degree of LMX, the stronger this mediating role is. This study not only expands the research on ethical leadership, but also provides management enlightenment for enterprises to implement appropriate management methods and improve innovation performance.