<p>Employees’ innovative performance is influenced by how they perceive, feel and behave in workplace. Based on emotion appraisal theory and stress cognitive activation theory, this study explores the mechanisms by which employees’ perceived interpersonal interactions (perceived social support and perceived social undermining) in new ventures affect their innovation performance. It also examined the mediating roles of envy (benign envy and malicious envy) and work rumination (problem-solving rumination and emotional rumination). We surveyed 602 employees from new ventures and analyzed the data using a structural equation model. It was found that perceived social support had a significant positive effect on innovation performance and perceived social undermining had a significant negative effect on innovation performance. Benign envy and problem-solving rumination chain mediated the relationship between perceived social support and innovation performance. Malicious envy and emotional rumination chain-mediated the relationship between perceived social undermining and innovation performance. This paper enriches the research on perceived interpersonal interactions, envy and rumination, and suggests theoretical and empirical implications as well as future research directions.</p>