The Effect of Entrepreneurial Leadership on Employees’ Tacit Knowledge Sharing in Start-Ups: A Moderated Mediation Model

Figures & data

Figure 1 Conceptual model.

Table 1 Assessment of Measurement Model

Variables	Items	Loading	KMO	CR	AVE
Entrepreneurial leadership Cronbach’s α = 0.845	EL_1	0.558	0.851	0.848	0.530
	EL_2	0.733
	EL_3	0.784
	EL_4	0.774
	EL_5	0.768
Tacit knowledge sharing Cronbach’s α = 0.748	TKS_1	0.752	0.651	0.761	0.523
	TKS_2	0.845
	TKS_3	0.537
Affective commitment Cronbach’s α = 0.876	AC_1	0.772	0.830	0.877	0.641
	AC_2	0.806
	AC_3	0.843
	AC_4	0.779
Career growth opportunities Cronbach’s α = 0.810	CGO_1	0.685	0.703	0.812	0.592
	CGO_2	0.780
	CGO_3	0.836

Note: n = 485.

Table 2 Descriptive Statistics and Correlations Between the Main Variables

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1. Gender	1.000
2. Age	−0.061	1.000
3. EDU	0.000	0.049	1.000
4. WT	−0.028	0.414	0.126**	1.000
5. EL	−0.039	0.140	0.004	0.243	(0.728)
6. TKS	0.056	0.068	0.024	0.264	0.484**	(0.723)
7. AC	−0.022	0.154	0.074	0.363	0.549**	0.560**	(0.801)
8. CGO	−0.067	0.134	0.128**	0.352	0.514**	0.527**	0.661**	(0.769)
Mean	1.625	2.258	1.868	2.689	5.293	5.37	5.222	5.164
SD	0.485	1.051	0.545	1.024	0.661	1.072	1.163	1.161

Note: n = 485; The numbers in brackets on the diagonal are square root of AVE; *p<0.05, **p<0.01.

Abbreviations: EDU, Education; WT, working tenure; SD, standard deviation.

Table 3 Hierarchical Regression Analysis Results (Main Effects)

Outcome Variable	TKS				AC
	M1	M2	M3	M4	M5	M6	M7
Control variable
Gender	0.061	0.074	0.067	0.091*	−0.011	0.003	0.024
Age	−0.046	−0.067	−0.048	−0.037	0.004	−0.018	0.015
Education	−0.010	0.002	−0.026	−0.053	0.029	0.042	−0.023
Working tenure	0.286***	0.184 ***	0.095*	0.111*	0.357***	0.245***	0.145***
Independent variable
EL		0.451 ***				0.492***
Mediating variable
AC			0.536***
Moderating variable
CGO				0.506***			0.612***
R^2	0.076	0.266	0.325	0.297	0.133	0.359	0.457
F	9.842***	34.802***	46.176***	40.562***	18.334***	53.659***	80.619***
ΔR^2	0.076	0.191	0.249	0.222	0.133	0.226	0.324
ΔF	9.842***	124.515***	177.075***	151.129***	18.334***	169.253***	286.188***

Note: n = 485; *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001.

Figure 2 The moderating role of CGO between EL and TKS.

Figure 3 The moderating role of CGO between EL and AC.

Table 4 Hierarchical Regression Analysis Results (Mediating Effects and Moderating Effects)

Outcome Variable	TKS			AC
	M8	M9	M10	M11	M12
Control variable
Gender	0.073	0.091	0.088	0.024	0.022
Age	−0.059	−0.052	−0.052	0.000	0.001
Education	−0.015	−0.034	−0.028	−0.004	0.000
Working tenure	0.086*	0.095*	0.091*	0.130**	0.127**
Independent variable
EL	0.254***	0.284***	0.298***	0.273***	0.284***
Mediating variable
AC	0.402***
Moderating variable
CGO		0.365***	0.382***	0.477***	0.489***
Interactive item
Int_1: EL*CGO			0.108**		0.081*
R^2	0.370	0.356	0.367	0.511	0.517
F	46.749***	44.000***	39.452***	83.282***	72.994***
ΔR^2	0.103	0.089	0.011	0.152	0.006
ΔF	78.376***	66.276***	8.191**	148.680***	6.019*

Note: n = 485; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table 5 Bootstrap Test with Moderated Mediating Effect

	EL→AC				EL→TKS
Moderating Variable: CGO	B	SE	LLCL	ULCL	B	SE	LLCL	ULCL
Low (-SD)	0.382	0.081	0.224	0.541	0.222	0.084	0.057	0.387
Mean	0.519	0.066	0.389	0.649	0.355	0.072	0.214	0.496
High (+SD)	0.656	0.089	0.480	0.831	0.488	0.096	0.299	0.677

Notes: n = 485; Conditions for CGO were the mean plus or minus one standard deviation from the mean. EL and CGO were mean-centred before analysis.