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Service Innovation in the IT Service Industry: Social Influence and Relationship Exchange Perspectives

activating persistent beliefs within the work context. By eliciting the intrinsic nature of
value congruence, employees’ preferences align with team members. Such conformity
lowers uncertainty among all team members, energizing them in their tasks (Maruping,
Daniel, and Cataldo, 2019). A high empowering leader helps team members align their
values and goals and innovate. In line with this theoretical expectation, prior research
indicates empowered employees are motivated to perform well because EML leads team
members to generate personal beliefs and values that the task at hand is meaningful

and relevant (Chen, Sharma, Edinger, Shapiro, and Farh, 2011). In sum, we propose the
following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1: Value congruence mediates the positive relationships between EML and
innovation intention.

2.3 EML → Felt Obligation → Innovation Intention
We propose that EML enhances individual innovation performance by augmenting

the felt obligation of team members. Felt obligation for innovation is an employee’s
perception that he or she is personally accountable for or obligated to bring about customer
service innovation (Fuller, Marler, and Hester, 2006; Morrison and Phelps, 1999). In the
organization research context, felt obligation is considered a prescriptive belief regarding
whether employees should express concern about the firm’s well-being and help it achieve
its objectives (Eisenberger, Armeli, Rexwinkel, Lynch, and Rhoades, 2001). In other
words, such before-the-fact responsibility is normative and future-oriented, reflecting an
assumed obligation or willingness for proactive involvement (Fuller et al., 2006). Fuller
et al. (2006) also highlight that employees who are willing to take responsibility for their

actions are more likely to perceive these actions as beneficial to their teams or companies,
thereby promoting a positive and selfless behavior.
According to the principles of EML, a leader eliminates obstacles, affords employees
the autonomy and discretion needed to perform their tasks, and establishes the requisite
procedures for achieving goals (Ahearne et al., 2005). Such support from a leader nurtures
employees’ sense of self-determination and fuels their motivation to take initiative and
propose constructive solutions to challenges, thus improving processes (Eisenberger,

Karagonlar, Stinglhamber, Neves, Becker, Gonzalez-Morales, and Steiger-Mueller, 2010;
Huang and Tsai, 2019). Influence over a broad range of decisions encourages a sense of
ownership (Parker, Williams, and Turner, 2006) that in turn effectively strengthens a sense
of responsibility for tasks and outcomes (Oldham and Cummings, 1996). Additionally,

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