Considering the real-world dilemma of leaders' high long-term orientation and employees' insufficient innovative behaviors in practice, this study systematically explored the relationship between leaders' long-term orientation and employees' innovative behaviors using challenge and threat appraisals as the mediating variables and promotion focus as the moderating variable. An empirical analysis was performed on 348 two-stage leader-employee matching questionnaires collected from emerging industries in China. Leaders' long-term orientation was positively related to employees' innovative behaviors overall, and had positive and negative indirect relationships with employees' innovative behaviors via employees' challenge and threat appraisals, respectively. Employees' promotion focus positively moderated the relationship between leaders' long-term orientation and employees' challenge appraisal, negatively moderated the relationship between leaders' long-term orientation and employees' threat appraisals, and further moderated the mediating role of challenge or threat appraisal in the relationship between leaders' long-term orientation and employees' innovative behaviors. This study revealed the relationship between leaders' long-term orientation on employees' innovative behaviors and its boundaries. It expands theoretical research on leaders' long-term orientation and employees' innovative behaviors.