How challenge demands affect employee innovative behavior? The dual role of team leaders’ Dark Triad personality traits

• Examine how challenge demands shape employee innovative behavior. • Show how entrepreneurial culture moderates the challenge–innovation relationship. • Reveal the dual role of leaders’ Dark Triad in high-tech new ventures. This study examines the dual role of team leaders’ Dark Triad—that is, their propensity towards Machiavellianism, narcissism, and subclinical psychopathy—in shaping the relationship between challenge demands and employee innovative behavior in high-tech new ventures. Drawing on the job demands-resources model, we propose that challenge demands positively relate to employee innovative behavior and that leaders’ Dark Triad moderates this relationship both directly and indirectly through entrepreneurial culture. Based on a Chinese sample, our empirical results revealed that challenge demands positively predict employee innovative behavior. Additionally, our findings indicate that while the Dark Triad directly moderates this relationship by diminishing the positive impact of challenge demands, it indirectly strengthens the relationship by cultivating an entrepreneurial culture that encourages innovation. This dual pathway highlights the complex role of leadership traits in shaping organizational outcomes, underscoring the importance of managing these traits to harness their potential benefits while mitigating their negative impacts.