关键词: 苛责式领导；表层扮演；情绪耗竭；研发人员, 产品创新失败

Abstract:    With the updating and iteration of digital technology and the complexity and variability of consumer demand preferences, product innovation has become an important way for enterprises to maintain competitive advantage in the rapidly changing market environment. As the main body of innovation activities, R&D personnel directly determine the success or failure of product innovation. However, although product innovation is very important, it is not always successful. In practice, the failure rate of product innovation remains high. According to incomplete statistics, its value is no less than 35%, and the negative brand spillover effect caused by product innovation failure has brought huge losses to enterprises. Therefore, product innovation failure is a problem that should not be ignored by any enterprise. It is necessary to conduct an in-depth discussion on the relevant factors affecting the failure of product innovation of R&D personnel.Most of the existing studies focus on the factors that influence the success of product innovation. Although a few scholars have pointed out the reasons for the failure of some product innovation, they have relatively neglected the impact of leadership behavior, an organizational factor, on the failure of product innovation. The literature shows that abusive leadership can inhibit employees′ innovation behavior, but few studies have explored the impact of abusive leadership on product innovation failure of R&D personnel. In addition, in the face of insults such as abuse, criticism and public ridicule from leaders, employees are more inclined to choose surface-acting strategies to cope with the work within their roles, and this strategy is more likely to lead to the unlimited consumption of employees′ psychological resources, which will lead to emotional exhaustion, and ultimately result in failure. Therefore, this study explores the impact of abusive leadership on product innovation failure of R&D personnel, and the chain mediating role of surface acting and emotional exhaustion.Based on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress and the ego depletion theory, we built a theoretical model of the impact of abusive leadership on the product innovation failure of R&D personnel. Through a questionnaire survey of 400 employees, we finally collected 296 valid questionnaires and tested the model with the help of SPSS, Structural Equation Model, Bootstrap and other methods. The results showed that the abusive leadership positively affects the product innovation failure of R&D personnel; surface acting and emotional exhaustion play a mediating role in the relationship between abusive leadership and product innovation failure of R&D personnel; surface acting and emotional exhaustion play a chain mediating role between abusive leadership and product innovation failure of R&D personnel.The theoretical contributions of this study include: firstly, different from previous studies, which mainly discuss product innovation from a positive perspective, this study focused on the failure of product innovation of R&D personnel, which have broadened the research perspective of product innovation to a certain extent; secondly, based on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress and the ego depletion theory, we revealed the chain mediating role of surface acting and emotional exhaustion in this process, which has not only clarified the path of abusive leadership affecting the product innovation failure of R&D personnel, but also enriched the research theory in this field; and finally, this study delved deeper into the emotional evolution process of product innovation failure induced by abusive leadership among R&D personnel, and analyzed the impact of abusive leadership on the evolution of individual negative emotions during product failure among R&D personnel, which has, to some extent, broadened the current research approach of scholars towards abusive leadership.The management implications of this study include: firstly, in management practice, leaders should adhere to the principles of "calm in case of trouble" and "treat things rather than people", and try to avoid abusive management; secondly, enterprises should cultivate correct emotional labor strategies for R&D personnel, eliminate the burden of negative emotional expression of employees and reduce their surface acting by paying attention to the emotional expression of R&D personnel and standardizing the words and deeds of leaders; and thirdly, enterprises should take intervention measures against the negative emotions of R&D personnel, and avoid emotional exhaustion by strengthening emotional and resource support for R&D personnel, establishing complaint channels for R&D personnel.

Key words: abusive leadership, surface acting, emotional exhaustion, product innovation failure of R&D personnel