Innovative Behaviors, Employee Creativity, and Sustainable Competitive Advantage: ModeratedMediation Evidence from Hotel Industry

It is challenging for enterprises that lack innovation and creativity to survive successfully in the market. Employees’ superior performance is not always sufficient to gain a competitive advantage, in which innovative behaviors and creativity can be counted as necessary ingredients to build competitive advantage in the market. This study proposed and tested impacts of employees’ innovative actions (IB) as mediator and creativity as a moderator in the effect of high-performance work practices (HPWPs) on sustainable competitive advantage (CA). The resource-based view and job demands-resources model provided the theoretical underpinnings for the developed hypotheses tested using a sample of 323 customer-contact employees of 4- and 5-star hotels. The results indicated that HPWPs indirectly predicted CA via IB. Besides, creativity moderated the impact of HPWPs on innovative behaviors positively and on competitive advantage negatively. Employees’ innovative behaviors can generate substantial returns to service organizations competing with quasi-homogeneous end-products. The relevant theoretical and practical implications are discussed further. This study fills the dearth of research in service innovation in the hotel industry by testing the mediating effect of IB on the HPWPs CA nexus. It also reveals the moderating role that employee creative traits have in these relationships.