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Can transactive memory system improve top management team’s creativity? The moderating role of team identity

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Abstract

Whether transactive memory system can improve top management team’s creativity is an important issue that remains to be solved. Based on the theory of information processing, social exchange, upper echelons and social identity, this study proposed a theoretical model to answer the question whether transactive memory system could improve top management team’s creativity, introduced team identity as a moderator simultaneously. Hierarchical regression analysis of data obtained from 527 executives in 46 top management teams revealed team expertise, team trust and team coordination separately had a significant positive impact on top management team’s creativity; Team identity partially moderated the relationship between transactive memory system and top management team’s creativity. According to these findings, transactive memory system could promote top management team’s creativity, and team identity enhanced the positive effects of team expertise and team coordination on top management team’s creativity. These made up for the lack of theoretical research on the relationships among transactive memory system, top management team’s creativity and team identity, could provide scientific guidance to conduct transactive memory system practice, improve top management team’s creativity.

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Funding

This research was supported by: General Project of the National Social Science Fund (17BGL097), Youth Fund for Humanities and Social Sciences Research of Education Ministry in China (20YJC630117), General Project of Philosophy and Social Science Planning in Shanghai (2019BGL025), “the Legalization and Refinement of Urban Grassroots Governance” Workshop of Shanghai Normal University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Philosophy, Law & Politics Science, Shanghai Normal University, Room 702, Liberal Arts Experimental Building, 81 Guilin Road, Shanghai, 200234, China

    Pengfei Rong & Jiaqi Xie

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  1. Pengfei Rong
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  2. Jiaqi Xie
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Correspondence to Pengfei Rong.

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This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with both the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and the Academic Ethics and Ethics Committee of Shanghai Normal University.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Author A declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author B declares that she has no conflict of interest.

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Rong, P., Xie, J. Can transactive memory system improve top management team’s creativity? The moderating role of team identity. Curr Psychol 40, 4156–4163 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01507-y

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