Mitigating creativity risks of knowledge hiding through GenAI knowledge seeking: moderating roles of goal orientation

Knowledge hiding among colleagues creates problematic information environments that can undermine individual creativity in new product development (NPD) work. While prior research has primarily focused on preventing or reducing knowledge hiding, little is known about how professionals cope with the resulting knowledge gaps in digitally mediated workplaces. Drawing on the attention-based view and achievement goal theory, this study examines whether and when the creativity costs of intra-team knowledge hiding can be partially offset through generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) knowledge seeking.

We developed and tested a moderated mediation model in which GenAI knowledge seeking mediates the relationship between intra-team knowledge hiding and individual creativity, with goal orientation serving as a moderator. The hypotheses were tested using multi-wave, multi-informant survey data collected from 275 Chinese NPD professionals.

The results show that intra-team knowledge hiding is negatively associated with individual creativity, but this effect operates through two opposing pathways: a negative direct effect and a positive indirect effect via GenAI knowledge seeking that partially offsets the direct harm. Moreover, learning goal orientation strengthens the positive relationship between knowledge hiding and GenAI knowledge seeking, thereby mitigating the creativity risks associated with colleagues' knowledge hiding.

This study advances the literature by broadening attention beyond suppressing knowledge hiding to understanding technology-enabled coping responses. By identifying GenAI knowledge seeking as a compensatory mediating pathway and learning goal orientation as a boundary condition, the study provides novel insights into how AI technologies can help professionals partially sustain creativity under imperfect knowledge-sharing conditions in NPD teams.