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The aim of this study was to explore cross‐level mechanisms stimulating employees' innovative behavior in small firms, specifically emotional contagion between small business owners and their employees. Using data from three European countries and applying a multilevel approach, we tested how small business owners' work‐related affect—enthusiasm and comfort—relate to their employees' work‐related affect and innovative work behavior. The sample consisted of 85 small business owners and 711 employees from firms operating in the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. Controlling for country, the results of multilevel modeling showed that small business owners' work‐related affect was positively related to their employees' work‐related affect. The hypothesized contagion of work‐related affect in small firms was, thus, supported. Employees' work‐related affect, in turn, was positively associated with their innovative behavior. Employees' work‐related affect mediated the relationship between small business owners' work‐related affect and employees' innovative behavior. The results also showed cross‐country differences in the strength of some of the relationships. The study is a step forward in understanding innovation in small firms, extending the insights gained from single‐level investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovativeness is one of the crucial factors allowing companies to grow, and innovative behavior of entrepreneurs is an important source of firm innovativeness and business success. This study aims to better understand self‐regulatory mechanisms stimulating the innovative behavior of entrepreneurs. We have tested the mediation model in which work‐related affect (enthusiasm, comfort, anxiety, and depression) mediates the relationship between work self‐efficacy and innovative behavior. A longitudinal study with three measurement times was conducted on a sample of entrepreneurs–business owners. The mediation analysis with bias‐corrected bootstrapping method confirmed that the relation between work self‐efficacy and innovative behavior of entrepreneurs is mediated by their work‐related positive affect—comfort and enthusiasm—but not by negative affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The job-related affective well-being measure developed by Warr (1990, J. Occup. Psychol., 63, 193) has been a frequently used tool estimating affect in the work context. The main purpose of this study was to test the measurement invariance of the instrument across cultures and genders. The model with four correlated factors, representing anxiety, comfort, depression, and enthusiasm, had a superior fit compared to alternative models in a sample of 807 employees and was used as the basis of measurement invariance tests. The results of multigroup confirmatory factor analysis showed partial metric invariance across samples of employees from the Netherlands ( n = 254), Poland ( n = 436), and Spain ( n = 207), as well as full scalar invariance across genders (female n = 323; male n = 466). This indicates that cross-cultural comparisons of relationships between job-related affect as measured with this instrument and other constructs can be meaningful. Additionally, mean scores on the scales of the instrument can be meaningfully compared across genders, but not across countries. Practitioner points Warr's job-related affective well-being measure is a valid and reliable operationalization of four correlated affective dimensions: anxiety, comfort, depression, and enthusiasm., Mean scores on these dimensions can be meaningfully compared across genders, but comparisons of mean scores between countries should be interpreted with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]