Stimulating Creativity for NPD Project Teams: A Social Capital Perspective

[[abstract]]Creativity in project teams plays a bridging role for linking individual creativity and organizational creativity because project team members need to network each other in order to exchange and transfer knowledge and information, and network with the external environment in order to collect critical information for innovative products. The process of network encompasses social interaction, trusting relations, and value systems, which were defined as the components of social capital. We argue that taking a social capital perspective can contribute a more understanding about how team members interact internally and externally in stimulating creativity. Data were collected from 106 engineers who conduct new product development (NPD) project teams within a global high-tech company. Findings suggested that the greater social interaction and network ties, the higher creativity for NPD project teams. The shared goal was found to have significant and positive impact on creativity for NPD project teams, but mutual trust was not found. Managerial implications for managing internal social capital in project teams were drawn.[[fileno]]2070308030016[[department]]科技管理研究