Employee innovative behavior is an important source of organizational competitiveness and sustainable development. Accordingly, increasing scholarly attention has been directed toward how leadership behaviors are associated with employees’ innovative actions. Drawing on Affective Events Theory and the ABC Theory of Emotion, this study develops a cognition–emotion–attitude–behavior framework to examine the relationships among inclusive leadership, positive emotions, creative self-efficacy, and employee innovative behavior. Using a questionnaire survey, data were collected from 463 employees working in innovation-oriented enterprises. Hierarchical regression analyses and bootstrap procedures were employed to examine the proposed associations and indirect effects. Inclusive leadership plays a positive role in stimulating employee innovation. Moreover, positive emotions and creative self-efficacy each exhibit significant indirect associations linking inclusive leadership to employee innovative behavior. This study contributes to the literature by clarifying the affective and attitudinal processes associated with inclusive leadership and by enriching understanding of the psychological pathways linked to employee innovative behavior.
He et al. (2026) studied this question.