Empowering leadership, information absorptive capacity, innovative work behaviour and social interactions: examining mediation and moderation effects

Purpose This study aims to explore the role of information absorptive capacity (IAC) in linking empowering leadership to innovative work behaviour (IWB). It also examined how social interaction moderates the relationship between IAC and IWB. Design/methodology/approach The study used a quantitative approach to analyse survey data from 218 employees of the General Company for Textile and Leather Industries in Iraq. Structural equation modelling with AMOS v.28 was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The findings revealed that IAC mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and IWB. Employees with higher social interaction levels can better identify and acquire information, thereby strengthening the connection between absorptive capacity and IWB. Originality/value This study shows that IAC mediates the influence of empowering leadership on IWB, and it argues for the importance of social interaction as a boundary condition on the relationship between absorptive capacity and IWB for Iraq’s industrial environment.