While disagreements can ignite a creative spark, relationship conflicts often create dysfunctional dynamics that hinder the realization of innovative ideas. We build on the emotion regulation framework to investigate the influence of emotion regulation strategies on social interactions and their implications for employees’ innovative performance. We examined two commonly used emotion regulation strategies, expressive suppression (response-focused) and cognitive reappraisal (antecedent-focused) and to test their effects on innovation via contrasting social interaction processes. Team reflexivity was also considered as a potential moderating factor. The findings from a two-wave multi-source study revealed that expressive suppression in response to relationship conflict leads to interaction avoidance, hindering employee innovation, while cognitive reappraisal serves as a more adaptive emotion regulation strategy because it enables social expansion, thereby benefitting innovative performance. We found no support for an indirect moderating effect of team reflexivity. Our research highlights the contrasting effects of response-focused and antecedent-focused emotion regulation strategies on innovation. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for organizations seeking to foster innovation while simultaneously managing relationship conflicts among employees.