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When do teams generate valuable inventions? The moderating role of invention integrality on the effects of expertise similarity, network cohesion, and gender diversity

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  • Tian Heong Chan
  • Haibo Liu
  • Steffen Keck
  • Wenjie Tang

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. Yet these factors have also been shown to improve team coordination, which should (in theory) lead to better invention outcomes. We address this tension by highlighting the need to consider the invention's integrality, which increases task interdependencies among team members and thereby strengthens the positive relationship between team coordination and invention value. We hypothesize 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. We support these claims with evidence from utility patent data filed in the United States during the period 1983–2015.

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  • Tian Heong Chan & Haibo Liu & Steffen Keck & Wenjie Tang, 2023. "When do teams generate valuable inventions? The moderating role of invention integrality on the effects of expertise similarity, network cohesion, and gender diversity," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(6), pages 1760-1777, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:popmgt:v:32:y:2023:i:6:p:1760-1777
    DOI: 10.1111/poms.13939
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