Search results

Compared to the occurrence of conflict in general teams in organizations, conflict occurrence in entrepreneurial teams is more prevalent and intense. However, previous studies have found inconsistent relationships between entrepreneurial team conflict and performance, and the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain in the “black box.” Drawing on the motivated information processing in groups theory, this study aims to investigate how and when entrepreneurial team conflict influences entrepreneurial performance.

The authors collected survey data from 190 entrepreneurs across 58 entrepreneurial teams in China. The hypothesized relationships were examined through path analysis using the Mplus7.0 program.

Entrepreneurial team relationship conflict is negatively related to entrepreneurial performance mediated through team behavioral integration. Conversely, there exists a curvilinear (U-shaped) relationship between entrepreneurial team task conflict and entrepreneurial performance, also mediated through team behavioral integration. Furthermore, the curvilinear relationship between entrepreneurial team task conflict and team behavioral integration is strengthened by team contractual governance, whereas the relationship between entrepreneurial team relationship conflict and team behavioral integration is not moderated by team contractual governance.

This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between entrepreneurial team conflict and performance by identifying the mediating mechanism and boundary condition. The finding of a U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurial team task conflict and entrepreneurial performance underscores the uniqueness of the entrepreneurial team context, offering new empirical insights for future conflict research.

This study aims to explore the impacts of service industry employees’ AI awareness on their voice behavior while also considering the dual mediating roles of voice efficacy and job insecurity, as well as the moderating role of trait competitiveness.

The sample comprises data from a two-wave longitudinal survey of 203 employees in the service sector. This study examined all the hypotheses using Mplus 8.0.

This study confirms that service sector employees’ AI awareness has significant negative effects on both promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors. Voice efficacy can mediate the negative impact of AI awareness on promotive voice. Both voice efficacy and job insecurity can mediate the negative impact of AI awareness on prohibitive voice. Furthermore, employees’ trait competitiveness can weaken the negative impact of employees’ AI awareness on their voice efficacy.

Managers should first investigate employees’ AI awareness and then adopt targeted managerial strategies to promote their voice behavior.

This study contributes to the literature related to the consequences of AI awareness by linking AI awareness to employee voice behavior. Furthermore, this study deepens our understanding of how AI awareness affects employee voice behavior by proposing voice efficacy (i.e. the efficacy pathway) and job insecurity (i.e. the safety pathway) as key mediating mechanisms. Moreover, this study advances our understanding of when AI awareness influences employee voice behavior by identifying the moderating role of trait competitiveness.