Navigating inter-team competition: How information broker teams achieve team innovation

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Team Dynamics
• Innovation Management

Background:

• Organizations utilize teams for innovation, fostering both collaboration and competition.
• Inter-team competition intensity varies based on industry, work type, and team history.
• Understanding the interplay between competition and collaboration is crucial for team innovation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine how inter-team competitive and collaborative relations impact team innovation.
• To investigate the moderating role of network brokerage in the competition-innovation relationship.
• To identify specific team behaviors that facilitate or hinder knowledge access under competition.

Main Methods:

• A field study of 73 knowledge-intensive teams in high-tech engineering firms.
• A team-based network experimental study involving 162 teams.
• Analysis incorporating network structural hole theory and team behaviors.

Main Results:

• High overall competition among peer teams negatively impacts a focal team's ability to integrate diverse inter-team knowledge, thus hindering innovation.
• Teams occupying brokerage positions in the inter-team information exchange network are buffered from the negative effects of competition on knowledge acquisition.
• Brokerage effects are explained by focal teams' dealmaking and network obstruction behaviors.

Conclusions:

• Inter-team competition can stifle innovation by limiting knowledge integration.
• Network brokerage serves as a critical mechanism for teams to access knowledge resources despite competitive pressures.
• Strategic behaviors like dealmaking and network management are key for innovative teams operating in competitive environments.