<p>Previous research on workplace envy has focused on the negative consequences of malicious envy; however, the positive and constructive aspects of benign envy are equally important to organizations. According to social cognitive theory and social information processing theory, this study examined the relationship between benign envy and employee innovation behavior and its mechanisms. The study was conducted in two phases. Benign Envy and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS) was revised in phase one, in which 657 questionnaires were collected from three state-owned enterprises, and the results showed that BeMaS had good reliability and validity in China. 585 samples from a state-owned enterprise in phase two were collected to verify the hypothesis model proposed in this paper. The results showed that (1) there is a significant positive relationship between workplace benign envy and employee innovation behavior; (2) creative self-efficacy plays a mediating role between workplace benign envy and employee innovation behavior; (3) ethical leadership moderates the relationship between creative self-efficacy and employee innovation behavior, and the higher the level of ethical leadership, the stronger the positive predictive effect of creative self-efficacy on employee innovation behavior. This study revised BeMaS in the Chinese cultural context, enriched social cognitive theory and social information processing theory, innovatively proposed the positive relationship between benign envy and innovation behavior, and provided a theoretical basis for organizations to promote employee innovation behavior.</p>