When do teams generate valuable inventions?
The moderating role of invention integrality on the effects of expertise similarity, network cohesion, and gender diversity.
Abstract
Research has demonstrated that certain team composition factors—high expertise similarity, high network cohesion, and mixed-gender teams—have predominantly negative effects on the teams’ invention outcomes. We highlight how these effects depend on an invention’s integrality, which increases task interdependencies among team members and thereby strengthens the positive relationship between team coordination and invention value. We show that (i) the main effects of these team composition factors reduce a team’s invention value but, more importantly, that (ii) invention integrality positively moderates those effects.
Tian Chan
Associate Professor (Information Systems and Operations Management)
Scholar researching and teaching in the areas of operations and innovation management.