Team Creativity and Innovation: What Matters?
Authors: Badro Daniel , Fang Xiaowen , Adelakun Olayele 
Published: November 2024

Extensive research has been conducted on team creativity and innovation. Past research has allowed for scholars to gain a better understanding of the various factors that influence team creativity and innovation. There are different factors that influence team creativity and innovation. Mittone et al. [1] list risk preferences, past performances, and the consequences of failing to innovate as factors that influence creativity. Burpitt et al. [2] mention that leader empowering behavior is a factor that influences innovation. Past research has been unable to present and illustrate the various relationships between the factors listed above. The gap in knowledge lies wherein researchers have not yet identified the relationships between the factors and how these relationships influence team creativity and innovation. The research problem revolves around the need to identify and illustrate the relationships between the various factors that influence team creativity and innovation. The objective of this research is to formulate a method by which these factors can be presented. A cohesive framework, about team creativity and innovation, will be established. This framework will consist of the various relationships between the factors and how these factors influence one another. This framework was inspired by the components of creative performance proposed by Amabile [3]. In this framework, motivation, domain knowledge, and problem-solving ability are the three primary factors directly impacting team creativity while they can be affected by organizational influence, team members’ influence, and individual personality. Team Creativity is about how a team can develop original and innovative solutions to a problem. It is directly impacted by motivation, domain knowledge, and problem-solving abilities. It focuses on the idealization while innovation stresses implementation. Resources include resources required in implementing a creative solution in different forms such as materials, technologies, tools, human resources, etc. Implementation process is the actual process in which utility and value are realized. Many creative ideas and solutions can’t be realized due to many different reasons and constraints. Therefore, these ideas do not lead to actual innovations. It is those creative ideas that are fulfilled and become practical innovations. In the innovation stage, team creativity and resources are the two inputs to the implementation process. During the implementation process, utility and value is achieved and inputs are converted into innovation outcomes and results. In addition to the framework posed, the researchers will explore the most important factors underlining team creativity and innovation by eliciting knowledge from innovation experts and industry leaders. To obtain information, we will design a survey that consists of open-ended questions. We will leverage the connections we have in order to obtain information from students in addition to industry professionals that are actively supervising digital innovation projects. These industry professionals can be CIOs, Project Managers, Entrepreneurs, etc. We will strive to ask open-ended questions for each construct in the proposed team creativity and innovation framework. An example question can be “based on your experience, what are the most important issues in organizational influence that has impacted team creativity and innovation?”[1] Mittone, L., Morreale, A., Vu, T. What Drives Innovative Behavior? An Experimental Analysis on Risk Attitudes, Creativity, and Performance. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 98. 2022.[2] Burpitt, W.J., Bigoness, W.J. Leadership and Innovation Among Teams: The Impact of Empowerment. Small Group Research, 28(3), 414-423. 1997.[3] Amabile, T.M. The social psychology of creativity: A componential conceptualization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(2), 357-376. 1983.