Abstract: The impact mechanism of threat perception on the employees’ creativity after high-tech firm downsizing is examined. Based on the survey with a big sample, it is found that first, if employees consider downsizing as an opportunity (or threat), then they would exhibited greater (or less) creativity after downsizing; second, resource access has a positive impact on employees’ creativity; and third, resources access moderates the relationship between threat perception and self-perceived creativity in such a way, that is, comparing with employees who think downsizing as an opportunity, the employees who think downsizing as a threat experience greater creativity when resource access is high than when resource access is low.

Key words: downsizing, employee creativity, threat perception, resource access