This article presents a meta-analysis of team-level antecedents of creativity and innovation in the workplace. Using a general input-process-output model, the authors examined 15 team-level variables researched in primary studies published over the last 30 years and their relation to creativity and innovation. An exhaustive search of the international innovation literature resulted in a final sample (k) of 104 independent studies. Results revealed that team process variables of support for innovation, vision, task orientation, and external communication displayed the strongest relationships with creativity and innovation (rhos between 0.4 and 0.5). Input variables (i.e., team composition and structure) showed weaker effect sizes. Moderator analyses confirmed that relationships differ substantially depending on measurement method (self-ratings vs. independent ratings of innovation) and measurement level (individual vs. team innovation). Team variables displayed considerably stronger relationships with self-report measures of innovation compared with independent ratings and objective criteria. Team process variables were more strongly related to creativity and innovation measured at the team than the individual level. Implications for future research and pragmatic ramifications for organizational practice are discussed in conclusion.

Team-level predictors of innovation at work: a comprehensive meta-analysis spanning three decades of research.

Following the process-based definition of absorptive capacity, this article identifies technological and market knowledge as two critical components of prior knowledge in the organizational learnin

Absorptive Capacity, Environmental Turbulence, and the Complementarity of Organizational Learning Processes

Conflict and Conflict Management.

Despite increasing attention to the role of social ties in emerging economies, few studies have explicitly distinguished the differential roles of business versus political ties. Drawing on relational governance and institutional theories, this study offers a contingent view of business and political ties in China. The findings from a survey of 241 Chinese firms indicate that business ties have a stronger positive effect on performance than political ties, and both effects depend on institutional and market environments. Business ties are more beneficial when legal enforcement is inefficient and technology is changing rapidly, whereas political ties lead to greater performance when general government support is weak and technological turbulence is low. These findings indicate that firms operating in China should be cautious in their use of business and political ties and adapt their tie utilization to changing institutional and market environments.

The Effects of business and Political Ties on Firm Performance: Evidence from China.

This study aspires to empirically evaluate the effect of firm-specific resources and/or capabilities on sustainable supply management (SSM) and sustainability performance. Specifically, enviropreneurship and strategic purchasing are, respectively, recognized as firm-specific capabilities and resources that are fundamental to pursuing sustainable supply practices. SSM is forwarded as a key relational capability that can result in significant improvements in organizational sustainability. Using data collected from 145 U.S. firms and advanced structural equation modeling approaches, a number of direct, mediation and moderation effects are hypothesized and tested. Five of the six proposed hypotheses were found to be significant, providing strong support for the significant role that internal resources/capabilities can play in managing sustainable supply practices as well as organizational sustainability. Surprisingly, the hypothesis suggesting that strategic purchasing could moderate the relationship between enviropreneurship and SSM was found to be insignificant. This result suggests that managers need to realize that a strategic purchasing function alone cannot help in achieving the lofty goals of sustainability. On the contrary, the prime objective of firms must be to nurture an enviropreneurial orientation within their organization. Further implications for future research and practice within SSM are offered.

Understanding the relationships between internal resources and capabilities, sustainable supply management and organizational sustainability†

In recent years, many of the basic assumptions underlying organizational conflict research have changed, drawing into question the validity of some previous research findings. Operating from the perspective that conflict is complex, multidimensional, and context specific, this research takes a fresh look at key conflict antecedents, mediators, and consequences in the context of the innovation process. The study investigates the relationships among five behavioral conflict-handling strategies, destructive and constructive conflict, and innovation performance as perceived by 290 R & D and marketing department managers. Empirical results both support and question some of the previous findings in conflict research. The results indicate that integrating, accommodating, compromising, forcing, and avoiding conflict-handling strategies can have different impacts on constructive and destructive conflict in an innovation context.

Conflict management and innovation performance: An integrated contingency perspective

This study investigates the possible influence of ethnicity on U.S. consumer unit (CU) home furnishings expenditures. Using detailed CU expenditure data from the 2001 Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX), annual and quarterly data were analyzed through profile analysis and Tukey post hoc comparisons to determine ethnicity effects and mean expenditure differences on durable and nondurable home furnishings expenditures among African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Caucasian, Hispanic, and Native American CUs. Study results suggest that there is an ethnicity effect associated with aggregate home furnishings expenditures for both durables and nondurables as well as for 11 out of 13 categories of home furnishings. Findings further suggest that the flux in ethnic composition of the U.S. population and a variety of consumer motivations, perhaps including a new emphasis on fashion, may be influencing consumer expenditures on home furnishings.

Ethnicity and Household Expenditures: Furnishings, Fashion, and Flux?

This paper was presented at the 11th International Conference of the International Trade and Finance Association in Washington, D.C., May 26 to 29, 2001.

Blue Jeans: A Microcosm of the International Branding/Production Dilemma

This paper presents a new dynamic in the global supply chain—the import intermediary (IM) The primary objective is to obtain a deeper and real-life understanding of these firms( market environment, development, and functions The results indicate that import intermediaries play an important role in filling the gap between the “old” and “new” market environment

New Dynamics in the Global Supply Chain: Discovering Import Intermediaries

Unlike many products in the marketplace, the home furnishings industry in the United States is faced with a unique dilemma in marketing to its consumers, because: (1) relatively little product information is available to the end consumer about home furnishings and the home furnishings industry; and (2) relatively little consumer information is available to home furnishings manufacturers and retailers about their consumers' wants and needs--particularly information about the differences in the purchasing habits of minority populations. This paper seeks to explore the differences, similarities, and patterns of consumer expenditures on home furnishings in regards to minority populations in the United States, based on data from the 2001 Consumer Expenditure Survey (interview survey and detailed expenditure files). This paper will also juxtapose the demographic characteristics of minority populations to home furnishings expenditures in order to develop a more accurate consumer profile for the U.S. home furnishings market.This paper was presented at the 14th International Conference of the International Trade and Finance Association in San Antonion, Texas, May 21, 2004.

Barbara Dyer

Papers

Conflict management and innovation performance: An integrated contingency perspective

Ethnicity and Household Expenditures: Furnishings, Fashion, and Flux?

Blue Jeans: A Microcosm of the International Branding/Production Dilemma

New Dynamics in the Global Supply Chain: Discovering Import Intermediaries

Analysis of U.S. Household Home Furnishings Expenditures: A Minority Report