Psychological contract breach and service innovation behavior: psychological capital as a mediator

Abstract

Drawing from social information processing, conservation of resources, and affective events theories, our study proposes and tests a conceptual model that examines psychological capital (PsyCap) as a partial mediator of the influence of psychological contract breach (PCB) on service innovation behavior. These relationships were tested with data obtained from managerial and non-managerial employees in customer-contact positions who had full-time jobs in the five-star hotels in Seoul, South Korea. The findings from structural equation modeling suggest that PCB erodes employees' PsyCap and impedes their service innovation behavior. As expected, PsyCap activates employees' service innovation behavior. The findings also lend credence to PsyCap as a partial mediator in the aforesaid relationships.