Better Together: Exploring the Effects of Knowledge Application, Support for Innovation and Team Characteristics on Team Performance

In the context of designing supportive organizational and IT-based measures, understanding the effects of knowledge application and the support for innovation in different team settings are topics that have received increased scholarly attention. While the effects of knowledge application and support for innovation have been investigated and confirmed independently from each other, their joint influence in connection with team characteristics remains unexplored. This paper fills this gap by examining how and why team characteristics, such as task organization, task non-routine ness, IT support and the integration of expertise, come to affect team performance. Our analysis of survey data collected from 203 team members in two medium-sized organizations suggests that the factors ´knowledge application´, ´support for innovation´, ´task organization´ and ´IT support´ all exert some influence on team performance. Additional focus group data provided insights into measures, which organizations and managers can adopt to improve the performances of their teams.