The Effect Mechanism of Virtual Team Leadership on Employees’ Intrapreneurial Behavior in Southwest Border Areas of China

Authors

  • Lei Li
  • Chuensumon Bunnag
  • Ke Zhang
  • Zhaoyun Wen

Keywords:

Southwest Border Areas of China, Virtual Team Leadership, Employees Intrapreneurial Behavior, Passion for inventing, Organizational embeddedness

Abstract

The southwestern border areas are among the poorest regions in China, where poverty remains difficult to overcome. Activities such as employee-led intrapreneurship can accelerate organizational innovation and transformation, serving as an important driving force for economic development in these regions and as a key approach to improving local economic conditions. Leadership has been found to be closely related to employees’ intrapreneurial behavior. Therefore, based on Social Information Processing Theory, this study examines the relationship between virtual team leadership and employees’ intrapreneurial behavior, while also exploring the mediating role of passion for inventing and the moderating effect of organizational embeddedness in the southwestern border areas of China.Data were collected in September 2025 through purposive sampling using online questionnaires distributed to employees from 65 enterprises in the region, resulting in 589 valid responses, representing an 89.24% response rate. This quantitative study utilized SPSSAU* to test the hypotheses through correlation analysis, path analysis, as well as mediation and moderation analyses.

The findings revealed that virtual team leadership was positively associated with employees’ intrapreneurial behavior. In addition, passion for inventing played a mediating role in this relationship, while organizational embeddedness moderated both the direct effect of virtual team leadership on passion for inventing and the indirect effect of virtual team leadership on employees’ intrapreneurial behavior through passion for inventing in the southwestern border areas of China. Finally, the study recommends that poverty alleviation agencies and related organizations prioritize support for the composite leadership characteristics required in virtual environments, as well as employees’ perceptions of organizational attachment, within local poverty reduction strategies. Such an approach can foster proactive innovation mechanisms and encourage employee-initiated intrapreneurial activities, thereby contributing to poverty alleviation and economic development in the southwestern border areas of China.

 

* Intelligent web analytics software, including SEM

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Published

2026-06-26

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 1 (2026): มกราคม - มิถุนายน

Section

บทความวิจัย (Research Article)

License

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