IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i16p4441-d258343.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Heterogeneity and Leadership on Innovation Performance: Evidence from University Research Teams in China

Author

Listed:
  • Shufang Huang

    (School of Public Administration, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou 310018, China)

  • Jin Chen

    (School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

  • Liang Mei

    (National School of Development, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China)

  • Weiqiao Mo

    (School of Public Administration, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou 310018, China)

Abstract

Interdisciplinary cooperation is an important way to achieve scientific innovation breakthrough. Currently, great scientific innovation often occurs in interdisciplinary areas. However, they still face challenges in relation to theoretical support and strategic choices. This paper identifies the extent to which interdisciplinary cooperation-induced heterogeneity affects team innovation performance in Chinese universities. The questionnaire survey is employed in this study and the samples selection covers a wide range of multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary collaboration. This study used Poisson regression analysis to create a new method to evaluate innovation performance. Then, the relationship between team heterogeneity and innovation performance was examined and the moderating role of transformational leadership was also introduced. The empirical results show that three independent variables (disciplinary heterogeneity, cognitive heterogeneity, and organisational heterogeneity) all had a significant positive effect on the team innovation performance. Transformational leadership has a significant positive effect on cognitive heterogeneity and innovation performance, but moderating effects did not appear to be seen in the other two relationships. Our study contributes to a deeper understanding of the value of interdisciplinary research collaboration.

Suggested Citation

  • Shufang Huang & Jin Chen & Liang Mei & Weiqiao Mo, 2019. "The Effect of Heterogeneity and Leadership on Innovation Performance: Evidence from University Research Teams in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-14, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:16:p:4441-:d:258343
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4441/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4441/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mariana Mazzucato, 2018. "Mission-oriented innovation policies: challenges and opportunities," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(5), pages 803-815.
    2. Giovanni Abramo & Ciriaco Andrea D’Angelo & Flavia Costa, 2018. "The effect of multidisciplinary collaborations on research diversification," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(1), pages 423-433, July.
    3. Philipp Sieger & Marc Gruber & Emmanuelle Fauchart & Thomas Zellweger, 2016. "Measuring the social identity of entrepreneurs: Scale development and international validation," Post-Print hal-01725410, HAL.
    4. Biancani, Susan & Dahlander, Linus & McFarland, Daniel A. & Smith, Sanne, 2018. "Superstars in the making? The broad effects of interdisciplinary centers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 543-557.
    5. Sieger, Philipp & Gruber, Marc & Fauchart, Emmanuelle & Zellweger, Thomas, 2016. "Measuring the social identity of entrepreneurs: Scale development and international validation," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 542-572.
    6. Ronald C. Anderson & David M. Reeb & Arun Upadhyay & Wanli Zhao, 2011. "The Economics of Director Heterogeneity," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 5-38, March.
    7. Davide Donina & Marco Seeber & Stefano Paleari, 2017. "Inconsistencies in the Governance of Interdisciplinarity: the Case of the Italian Higher Education System," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 44(6), pages 865-875.
    8. Richard Van Noorden, 2015. "Interdisciplinary research by the numbers," Nature, Nature, vol. 525(7569), pages 306-307, September.
    9. Whalen, Ryan, 2018. "Boundary spanning innovation and the patent system: Interdisciplinary challenges for a specialized examination system," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(7), pages 1334-1343.
    10. Zuo, Zhiya & Zhao, Kang, 2018. "The more multidisciplinary the better? – The prevalence and interdisciplinarity of research collaborations in multidisciplinary institutions," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 736-756.
    11. Giovanni Abramo & Ciriaco Andrea D’Angelo & Flavia Di Costa, 2018. "The effects of gender, age and academic rank on research diversification," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(2), pages 373-387, February.
    12. Walsh, John P. & Lee, You-Na & Nagaoka, Sadao, 2016. "Openness and innovation in the US: Collaboration form, idea generation and implementation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 1660-1671.
    13. Rainer Kattel & Mariana Mazzucato, 2018. "Mission-oriented innovation policy and dynamic capabilities in the public sector," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(5), pages 787-801.
    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. Malte Hückstädt & Luca M. Leisten, 2024. "Internal factors promoting research collaboration problems: an input-process-output analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(4), pages 2007-2035, April.
    2. Lei Wang & Xinya Liang, 2020. "The Influence of Leaders’ Positive and Implicit Followership Theory of University Scientific Research Teams on Individual Creativity: the Mediating Effect of Individual Self-Cognition and the Moderati," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-24, March.
    3. Qinwei Cao & Qiaoyu Meng & Can Wang & Jing Wang & Wanchun Duan, 2023. "The task coordination method of intelligence‐alliance innovation team of universities in Western China," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 503-524, March.
    4. Hammad Bin Azam Hashmi & Cosmina L. Voinea & Marjolein C. J. Caniëls & Ward Ooms & Kashif Abbass, 2023. "Do top management team diversity and chief sustainability officer make firms greener? Moderating role of top management team behavioral integration," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 2536-2547, August.
    5. Jia Zhou & Aifang Guo & Yutao Chen & Jin Chen, 2022. "Original Innovation through Inter-Organizational Collaboration: Empirical Evidence from University-Focused Alliance Portfolio in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, May.

    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. Qinwei Cao & Qiaoyu Meng & Can Wang & Jing Wang & Wanchun Duan, 2023. "The task coordination method of intelligence‐alliance innovation team of universities in Western China," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 503-524, March.
    2. Gubik, Andrea S. & Vörös, Zsófia, 2023. "Why narcissists may be successful entrepreneurs: The role of entrepreneurial social identity and overwork," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    3. Janssen, Matthijs J. & Abbasiharofteh, Milad, 2022. "Boundary spanning R&D collaboration: Key enabling technologies and missions as alleviators of proximity effects?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    4. Jenni Dinger & Michael Conger & David Hekman & Carla Bustamante, 2020. "Somebody That I Used to Know: The Immediate and Long-Term Effects of Social Identity in Post-disaster Business Communities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 115-141, September.
    5. Froese, Anna & Woiwode, Hendrik & Suckow, Silvio, 2019. "Mission Impossible? Neue Wege zu Interdisziplinarität: Empfehlungen für Wissenschaft, Wissenschaftspolitik und Praxis," Discussion Papers, Research Group Science Policy Studies SP III 2019-601, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    6. Yu, Xin & Zhang, Ting & Bogers, Marcel L.A.M., 2023. "Why do user innovators want to pursue user entrepreneurship? On the influence of the communitarian identity," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    7. Xin Liu & Yi Bu & Ming Li & Jiang Li, 2024. "Monodisciplinary collaboration disrupts science more than multidisciplinary collaboration," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 75(1), pages 59-78, January.
    8. Schmidt, Corinna Vera Hedwig & Gaßmann, Patrick Sven & McElvany, Nele & Flatten, Tessa Christina, 2025. "Angel funding and entrepreneurs' well-being: The mediating role of autonomy, competence, and relatedness," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 40(2).
    9. Benedetto Cannatelli & Matteo Pedrini & Michael Braun, 2019. "Individual-level antecedents of the entrepreneurial approach: the role of different types of passion in the Italian craft brewing industry," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1193-1219, December.
    10. Janssen, Matthijs J. & Abbasiharofteh, Milad, 2022. "Boundary spanning R&D collaboration: Key enabling technologies and missions as alleviators of proximity effects?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 180.
    11. Boone, Sarah & Andries, Petra & Clarysse, Bart, 2020. "Does team entrepreneurial passion matter for relationship conflict and team performance? On the importance of fit between passion focus and venture development stage," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(5).
    12. Grashof, Nils, 2020. "Putting the watering can away Towards a targeted (problem-oriented) cluster policy framework," Papers in Innovation Studies 2020/4, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    13. Burnell, Devin & Neubert, Emily & Fisher, Greg & Marvel, Matthew R. & Stevenson, Regan & Kuratko, Donald F., 2024. "Entrepreneurial hustle: Scale development and validation," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 39(4).
    14. Magali Canovi & Chiara Succi & Rania Labaki & Andrea Calabrò, 2023. "Motivating Next-generation Family Business Members to Act Entrepreneurially: a Role Identity Perspective," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(3), pages 2187-2214, September.
    15. Yoruk, Esin & Radosevic, Slavo & Fischer, Bruno, 2023. "Technological profiles, upgrading and the dynamics of growth: Country-level patterns and trajectories across distinct stages of development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(8).
    16. Davide Hahn, 2020. "The psychological well-being of student entrepreneurs: a social identity perspective," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 467-499, June.
    17. Froese, Anna, 2020. "Wissenschaft ohne (disziplinäre) Grenzen: Wie sich Interdisziplinarität im deutschen Wissenschaftssystem verankern lässt," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 13(1+2), pages 54-56.
    18. Yuhan Bao & Adrian Ely & Michael M. Hopkins & Xianzhe Li & Yangmu Huang, 2021. "Exploring the Antibiotics Innovation System and R&D policies in China: Mission Oriented Innovation?," SPRU Working Paper Series 2021-04, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    19. Laatsit, Mart & Grillitsch, Markus & Fünfschilling, Lea, 2025. "Great expectations: The promises and limits of innovation policy in addressing societal challenges," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(3).
    20. Hao-Fan Chumg & Jia-Wen Shi & Kai-Jun Sun, 2019. "Why Employees Contribute to Pro-Environmental Behaviour: The Role of Pluralistic Ignorance in Chinese Society," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:16:p:4441-:d:258343. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.