AI literacy and employee green innovation behavior: A multilevel moderated mediation model

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in hospitality operations, understanding how employees' AI literacy is associated with green innovation has become an important research issue. Grounded in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, this study examines the relationship between AI literacy and employee green innovation behavior, with green intrinsic motivation as a mediator and green engaging leadership as a moderator. Using two-wave data collected from 475 employees nested within 76 teams across four hotels in China, with green engaging leadership assessed by team leaders, the results indicate that AI literacy is positively associated with employee green innovation behavior and has a significant indirect association with green innovation behavior through green intrinsic motivation. In addition, green engaging leadership strengthens the positive relationship between green intrinsic motivation and employee green innovation behavior, such that the indirect association between AI literacy and green innovation behavior through green intrinsic motivation is stronger at higher levels of green engaging leadership. These findings extend the AI literacy and green innovation literature by highlighting the potential role of green intrinsic motivation in accounting for the indirect association between AI literacy and green innovation behavior, and green engaging leadership as an important boundary condition, while illustrating the applicability of the JD-R framework to AI-enabled sustainability in the hospitality context.