Employees’ eco-friendly innovative behaviors: Examining the role of individual and situational factors

This study examines the indirect effect of sustainability-oriented leadership (SOL) on eco-friendly innovative behaviors (EFIBs) through environmental awareness (EA) based on social exchange theory. Additionally, it investigates the conditional role of proactive personality (PP) on the “SOL-EA” relationship. The authors collected data from 284 manufacturing SMEs in Poland using a time-lagged two-stage design, and employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the proposed hypotheses. The empirical findings reveal that SOL impact employees’ EFIBs significantly indirectly (through EA), and PP amplifies the impact of SOL on EA. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to empirically test the integrated relationships among SOL, EFIBs, EA, and PP. This study contributes theoretically to the literature on leadership, innovation management, and employee behaviors from the perspective of a developed country.