Expansion of the Psychological Contract: Unlocking the Code of Innovation Behavior in Open Innovation Community

ABSTRACT Companies are increasingly building open innovation communities to take advantage of user innovation. However, research on the factors that drive users' innovation behavior is still lacking. Based on the self‐determination theory, we focus on the impact of different types of psychological contracts on users' innovation behavior, as well as the interactions between different types of psychological contracts. Using a questionnaire method, 385 valid questionnaires were collected from four Chinese open innovation communities, with the empirical results found: Transactional psychological contracts significantly negatively affect users' innovation behavior; relational psychological contracts and ideology‐infused psychological contracts have a significant positive effect; transactional psychological contracts negatively moderate the relationship between ideology‐infused psychological contracts and users' innovation behavior, while relational psychological contracts positively moderate this relationship. This study enriches and expands the research on psychological contract and users' innovation behavior, providing a reference for managing users' innovation behavior in the open innovation community context.