IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v128y2021icp661-672.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Multicultural R&D team operations in high-tech SMEs: Role of team task environment and individual team members’ personal experiences

Author

Listed:
  • Arslan, Ahmad
  • Haapanen, Lauri
  • Ahokangas, Petri
  • Naughton, Sean

Abstract

This paper analyzes how team task environment and individual team members’ personal experiences influence multicultural research and development (R&D) team operations in small and medium sized enterprises. Based on qualitative data from multiple R&D team operations in five Finnish software firms, the findings revealed that team task environment is significantly influenced by the Nordic egalitarian organizational culture. The team task environment appears to be more dominant in multicultural R&D teams than anticipated in earlier research. To some extent, this mitigates the influences of culture on multicultural R&D team operations. However, results also show that individual team member personal experiences comprise of task specific as well as cultural (international) experiences emanating from being a member of a multicultural team. Together, these two components have a positive influence on R&D operations, yet intriguingly, task specific experiences resonate with task variability and task analyzability, while cultural experiences tend to influence task interdependence.

Suggested Citation

  • Arslan, Ahmad & Haapanen, Lauri & Ahokangas, Petri & Naughton, Sean, 2021. "Multicultural R&D team operations in high-tech SMEs: Role of team task environment and individual team members’ personal experiences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 661-672.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:128:y:2021:i:c:p:661-672
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.02.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320300849
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.02.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Haapanen, Lauri & Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, Pia & Nikkilä, Sakari & Paakkolanvaara, Pertti, 2019. "The function-specific microfoundations of dynamic capabilities in cross-border mergers and acquisitions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 766-784.
    2. Karina R. Jensen, 2017. "Leading Global Innovation," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-53505-0, November.
    3. Sujin Jang, 2017. "Cultural Brokerage and Creative Performance in Multicultural Teams," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(6), pages 993-1009, December.
    4. Max Nathan & Neil Lee, 2013. "Cultural Diversity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: Firm-level Evidence from London," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 89(4), pages 367-394, October.
    5. Limaj, Everist & Bernroider, Edward W.N., 2019. "The roles of absorptive capacity and cultural balance for exploratory and exploitative innovation in SMEs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 137-153.
    6. Alicia Rodríguez & María Jesús Nieto, 2016. "Does R&D offshoring lead to SME growth? Different governance modes and the mediating role of innovation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(8), pages 1734-1753, August.
    7. Ricarda Bouncken & Alexander Brem & Sascha Kraus, 2016. "Multi-Cultural Teams As Sources For Creativity And Innovation: The Role Of Cultural Diversity On Team Performance," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(01), pages 1-34, January.
    8. Schworm, Stephanie K. & Cadin, Loic & Carbone, Valentina & Festing, Marion & Leon, Emmanuelle & Muratbekova-Touron, Maral, 2017. "The impact of international business education on career success—Evidence from Europe," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 493-504.
    9. Wood, Robert E., 1986. "Task complexity: Definition of the construct," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 60-82, February.
    10. Sarooghi, Hessamoddin & Libaers, Dirk & Burkemper, Andrew, 2015. "Examining the relationship between creativity and innovation: A meta-analysis of organizational, cultural, and environmental factors," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 714-731.
    11. Sajjad M Jasimuddin & Zuopeng (Justin) Zhang, 2014. "Knowledge management strategy and organizational culture," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 65(10), pages 1490-1500, October.
    12. Raymond Van Wijk & Justin J. P. Jansen & Marjorie A. Lyles, 2008. "Inter‐ and Intra‐Organizational Knowledge Transfer: A Meta‐Analytic Review and Assessment of its Antecedents and Consequences," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 830-853, June.
    13. von Zedtwitz, Maximilian & Gassmann, Oliver & Boutellier, Roman, 2004. "Organizing global R&D: challenges and dilemmas," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 21-49.
    14. Ronald E. Rice, 1992. "Task Analyzability, Use of New Media, and Effectiveness: A Multi-Site Exploration of Media Richness," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(4), pages 475-500, November.
    15. Singh, Sanjay Kumar, 2019. "Territoriality, task performance, and workplace deviance: Empirical evidence on role of knowledge hiding," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 10-19.
    16. Håkanson, Lars & Kappen, Philip, 2016. "Live and let die: A survival analysis of foreign R&D units in Swedish MNEs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 1185-1196.
    17. Pedro Soto-Acosta & Simona Popa & Daniel Palacios-Marqués, 2017. "Social web knowledge sharing and innovation performance in knowledge-intensive manufacturing SMEs," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 425-440, April.
    18. Sheng, Margaret L. & Chien, Iting, 2016. "Rethinking organizational learning orientation on radical and incremental innovation in high-tech firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 2302-2308.
    19. Gina Dokko & Steffanie L. Wilk & Nancy P. Rothbard, 2009. "Unpacking Prior Experience: How Career History Affects Job Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 51-68, February.
    20. Alexander Brem & Pierre Wolfram, 2017. "Organisation of new product development in Asia and Europe: results from Western multinationals R&D sites in Germany, India, and China," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 159-190, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arslan, Ahmad & Ahokangas, Petri & Haapanen, Lauri & Golgeci, Ismail & Tarba, Shlomo Y. & Bazel-Shoham, Ofra, 2022. "Generational differences in organizational leaders: an interpretive phenomenological analysis of work meaningfulness in the Nordic high-tech organizations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    2. Ahokangas, Petri & Haapanen, Lauri & Golgeci, Ismail & Arslan, Ahmad & Khan, Zaheer & Kontkanen, Minnie, 2022. "Knowledge sharing dynamics in international subcontracting arrangements: The case of Finnish high-tech SMEs," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(1).
    3. Hou, Tingting & Luo, Xin (Robert) & Ke, Dan & Cheng, Xusen, 2022. "Exploring different appraisals in deviant sharing behaviors: A mixed-methods study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 496-509.
    4. Rodgers, Waymond & Degbey, William Y. & Söderbom, Arne & Leijon, Svante, 2022. "Leveraging international R&D teams of portfolio entrepreneurs and management controllers to innovate: Implications of algorithmic decision-making," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 232-244.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sajjad Jasimuddin & Jun Li & Nicholas Perdikis, 2015. "Linkage between geographic space and knowledge transfer by multinational enterprises: a structural equation approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 54(3), pages 769-795, May.
    2. Koo, Chulmo & Wati, Yulia & Jung, Jason J., 2011. "Examination of how social aspects moderate the relationship between task characteristics and usage of social communication technologies (SCTs) in organizations," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 445-459.
    3. Steinberg, Philip J. & Procher, Vivien D. & Urbig, Diemo, 2017. "Too much or too little of R&D offshoring: The impact of captive offshoring and contract offshoring on innovation performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1810-1823.
    4. Ritala, Paavo & Baiyere, Abayomi & Hughes, Mathew & Kraus, Sascha, 2021. "Digital strategy implementation: The role of individual entrepreneurial orientation and relational capital," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    5. Brian E. Mennecke & Joseph S. Valacich & Bradley C. Wheeler, 2000. "The Effects of Media and Task on User Performance: A Test of the Task-Media Fit Hypothesis," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 9(6), pages 507-529, November.
    6. Sheng, Margaret L., 2019. "Foreign tacit knowledge and a capabilities perspective on MNEs’ product innovativeness: Examining source-recipient knowledge absorption platforms," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 154-163.
    7. Xie, Xuemei & Wang, Lijun & Zeng, Saixing, 2018. "Inter-organizational knowledge acquisition and firms' radical innovation: A moderated mediation analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 295-306.
    8. Yaya Sun & Tao Wang & Xin Gu, 2019. "A Sustainable Development Perspective on Cooperative Culture, Knowledge Flow, and Innovation Network Governance Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-17, November.
    9. Maciej Zastempowski & Waldemar Glabiszewski & Krzysztof Krukowski & Szymon Cyfert, 2020. "Technological Innovation Capabilities of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 460-474.
    10. Pishchulov, Grigory & Trautrims, Alexander & Chesney, Thomas & Gold, Stefan & Schwab, Leila, 2019. "The Voting Analytic Hierarchy Process revisited: A revised method with application to sustainable supplier selection," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 166-179.
    11. Hongyi Mao & Zongjun Wang & Lin Yi, 2021. "Does Entrepreneurial Orientation Lead to Successful Sustainable Innovation? The Evidence from Chinese Environmentally Friendly Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-19, September.
    12. Weng, David H. & Peng, Mike W., 2018. "Home bitter home: How labor protection influences firm offshoring," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 632-640.
    13. Algarni, Mohammad A. & Ali, Murad & Leal-Rodríguez, Antonio L. & Albort-Morant, Gema, 2023. "The differential effects of potential and realized absorptive capacity on imitation and innovation strategies, and its impact on sustained competitive advantage," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    14. Matthijs J. Verhulst & Anne-Françoise Rutkowski, 2018. "Decision-Making in the Police Work Force: Affordances Explained in Practice," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 827-852, October.
    15. Marte C.W. Solheim & Ron Boschma & Sverre Herstad, 2018. "Related variety, unrelated variety and the novelty content of firm innovation in urban and non-urban locations," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1836, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Oct 2018.
    16. Shahla Ghobadi & John Campbell & Stewart Clegg, 2017. "Pair programming teams and high-quality knowledge sharing: A comparative study of coopetitive reward structures," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 397-409, April.
    17. Petra Dickel & Monika Sienknecht & Jacob Hörisch, 2021. "The early bird catches the worm: an empirical analysis of imprinting in social entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 127-150, March.
    18. Odette M. Pinto, 2015. "Effects of Advice on Effectiveness and Efficiency of Tax Planning Tasks," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(4), pages 307-329, December.
    19. Stocks, Morris H. & Harrell, Adrian, 1995. "The impact of an increase in accounting information level on the judgment quality of individuals and groups," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 20(7-8), pages 685-700.
    20. Ge, Xiangyu & Zhou, Qianxiang & Liu, Zhongqi, 2020. "Assessment of space station on-orbit maintenance task complexity," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:128:y:2021:i:c:p:661-672. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.