Anxiety or engaged? Research on the impact of technostress on employees' innovative behavior in the era of artificial intelligence.

Technostress has emerged as a prevalent source of workplace stress as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into organizations. However, current literature predominantly focuses on the negative psychological impacts of technostress, highlighting the need for research into its potential benefits. To clarify the impact of technostress on employee innovative behavior, this study proposes a conceptual model grounded in transactional stress theory. Specifically, it investigates the mechanisms linking technostress to innovation behavior through the mediating roles of job anxiety and work engagement, with corporate digital responsibility (CDR) (i.e., organizational obligations in digital transformation encompassing data ethics, lawful technology use, and mitigation of digitalization's adverse effects) serving as a contextual boundary condition. Based on two-wave survey data from employees across Chinese manufacturing firms, this study conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and path regression analysis using Mplus 8.3. The results reveal that the effect of technostress on employee innovative behavior hinges on employees' appraisal of technostress. Specifically, when perceived as a hindrance, technostress triggers job anxiety, thereby inhibiting innovation behavior. When perceived as a challenge, it fosters work engagement, which enhances innovation behavior. Furthermore, CDR attenuates the positive relationship between technostress and job anxiety while amplifying its positive association with work engagement. Additionally, CDR moderates the mediating effect of job anxiety in the technostress-innovation behavior link. However, CDR does not significantly moderate the mediating role of work engagement, possibly because this mechanism is influenced by multiple contextual factors and requires further research in the future. This paper contributes to the technostress literature by clarifying how technostress affects employee innovative behavior through different mechanisms. This study holds important theoretical and practical significance for improving employees' adaptability and promoting the innovative development of enterprises amidst the technostress induced by AI.