{"title":"Upward social comparison toward proactive and reactive knowledge sharing: The roles of envy and goal orientations","authors":"Sun Young Sung , Yi Xin Li , Jin Nam Choi","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114314","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>By integrating the social comparison and emotion literature, this study theorizes that upward social comparisons indirectly predict employees’ proactive and reactive knowledge sharing by eliciting benign and malicious envy, respectively. We further hypothesize that learning goal orientation (LGO) and performance goal orientation (PGO) moderate the indirect effects. Evidence from two studies, including data from 176 employee–supervisor dyads in various industries and an online scenario-based simulation, supported most of the hypotheses. For employees with a high LGO, upward social comparison had a significantly positive indirect effect on proactive knowledge sharing through benign envy. Conversely, for employees with a low PGO, upward social comparison exhibited a significantly negative indirect effect on reactive knowledge sharing via malicious envy. Our analysis revealed mostly positive implications of upward social comparison toward employees’ emotional reactions and knowledge sharing, emphasizing the unique role of social comparisons of abilities and performance in the workplace.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":10.5000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Business Research","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296323006732","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
By integrating the social comparison and emotion literature, this study theorizes that upward social comparisons indirectly predict employees’ proactive and reactive knowledge sharing by eliciting benign and malicious envy, respectively. We further hypothesize that learning goal orientation (LGO) and performance goal orientation (PGO) moderate the indirect effects. Evidence from two studies, including data from 176 employee–supervisor dyads in various industries and an online scenario-based simulation, supported most of the hypotheses. For employees with a high LGO, upward social comparison had a significantly positive indirect effect on proactive knowledge sharing through benign envy. Conversely, for employees with a low PGO, upward social comparison exhibited a significantly negative indirect effect on reactive knowledge sharing via malicious envy. Our analysis revealed mostly positive implications of upward social comparison toward employees’ emotional reactions and knowledge sharing, emphasizing the unique role of social comparisons of abilities and performance in the workplace.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Business Research aims to publish research that is rigorous, relevant, and potentially impactful. It examines a wide variety of business decision contexts, processes, and activities, developing insights that are meaningful for theory, practice, and/or society at large. The research is intended to generate meaningful debates in academia and practice, that are thought provoking and have the potential to make a difference to conceptual thinking and/or practice. The Journal is published for a broad range of stakeholders, including scholars, researchers, executives, and policy makers. It aids the application of its research to practical situations and theoretical findings to the reality of the business world as well as to society. The Journal is abstracted and indexed in several databases, including Social Sciences Citation Index, ANBAR, Current Contents, Management Contents, Management Literature in Brief, PsycINFO, Information Service, RePEc, Academic Journal Guide, ABI/Inform, INSPEC, etc.