The influence of team knowledge sourcing on team creativity: Evidences from information system development
Abstract
Purpose
In a knowledge economy where innovation is a way for an organization to gain a competitive advantage, team creativity becomes an important factor of success. This paper aims to look at how a team's creativity is influenced by the degree of the team's knowledge sourcing.
Design/methodology/approach
A theoretical model is developed and tested to assess the influence of four main antecedents of team knowledge sourcing and creativity: learning orientation, intellectual demands, risk aversion, and relational capital. The research model is tested using PLSPM.
Findings
The findings show the significant influence of all the independent variables, but more particularly the strong influence of learning orientation on team knowledge sourcing and on team creativity.
Research limitations/implications
Team creativity was examined as team member perceptions of the creative processes in the team task. Data were gathered from graduate students working in a team on an e‐commerce development project. The data set was relatively small (148). Despite these limitations, the initial findings show some interesting patterns that will be worth investigating on a larger scale and in various environments.
Practical implications
The results provide considerable support for the idea that knowledge sourcing and the learning orientation of the team members can play an important role in supporting team creativity.
Originality/value
This research adapts the construct of knowledge sourcing from Gray and Meister to the team level of analysis. It conceptualizes the perspective that individually held knowledge influences creativity primarily through the process of knowledge sourcing (internal and external) at the team level.
Keywords
Citation
Khedhaouria, A. and Ribiere, V. (2013), "The influence of team knowledge sourcing on team creativity: Evidences from information system development", The Learning Organization, Vol. 20 No. 4/5, pp. 308-321. https://doi.org/10.1108/TLO-10-2012-0063
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited