Cultivating innovative behaviors: How entrepreneurial leaders foster employees’ antifragility within autonomous work settings

Entrepreneurial leadership has emerged as a key driver of innovation, yet the underlying mechanisms remain less understood. The current study, grounded in social cognitive theory and social learning theory, examines the role of entrepreneurial leadership in fostering innovative behavior among employees in autonomous work settings, with a particular focus on employee antifragility. It theorizes that employee antifragility mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and employees' innovative behavior and that the level of job autonomy moderates this association. To examine these dynamics, a two-wave survey was conducted with 358 full-time employees from various U.S. industries, employing Smart PLS-SEM, importance-performance map analysis, and necessary condition analysis for data analysis. The findings demonstrate a significant impact of entrepreneurial leadership on employees' innovative behavior, with employee antifragility acting as a key mediator. Furthermore, job autonomy was found to enhance the influence of entrepreneurial leadership on employee antifragility. The research offers practical insights for organizations aiming to boost innovation, suggesting that developing entrepreneurial leadership, nurturing employee antifragility, and supporting job autonomy are essential. The holistic perspective on the interplay of entrepreneurial leadership, employee antifragility, and job autonomy provides a new understanding of innovation in organizational settings.