Search results

The purpose of this paper is to further explore the relationship between new product development project teams and their workspace regarding the impact of the physical (space variety, indoor environmental quality, large meeting room, workstation) and sociotechnical environments (project commitment, IT environment) on their creativity and effectiveness.

The authors gathered data on an enterprise’s ten multidisciplinary teams operating in diverse workspaces by four means: over 40 interviews and four months of observation, secondary data and a survey with 645 responses.

For teams co-located on site and abroad, employees express that proximity in open space is paramount even considering the augmented density. The relationship between team effectiveness and team creativity is strong and bidirectional (correlationβ = 0.40****), but the patterns of relationship between these two variables and certain dimensions of the physical and sociotechnical environment are different. There is a positive and direct impact on team effectiveness, but to a lesser degree on creativity which, in turn, positively influences team effectiveness. Moreover, creativity intervenes (mediator variable) between project commitment, satisfaction with large meeting rooms and the IT environment on their relationship with team effectiveness. When the authors added a direct link between the variables and team effectiveness, the model explains 47.1 per cent of the variance.

The scope of the data is somewhat limited by the time that the company and its teams could allocate to this paper.

The arrangement of space reinforces employees’ sense of belonging to their team as measured by project commitment which along with satisfaction with the large meeting rooms and IT environment influence both team effectiveness and creativity. Managers could consider these three elements as levers for action. Space variety (or balanced layout) is also a way to support team creativity.

Even if open spaces are frequently used, the literature on creative spaces is dedicated mainly to an individual. This paper delivers some results and evidence on the concrete and simultaneous impacts of the workspaces on creativity and effectiveness of multidisciplinary new product development (NPD) team.

This paper focuses on the decision by firms to commit and to invest unilaterally. It is concerned with the intriguing question as to whether unilateral commitments are mechanisms that help a firm manage risks in alliance relationships in a proactive manner.

The hypotheses are tested with survey data on 344 alliance relationships of European biotechnology small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

In this paper it is shown that unilateral commitments have a positive effect on perceived opportunistic behavior. However, the evidence suggests that, by creating a basis for exchange, relational capital moderates the relationship between unilateral commitments and the perception of opportunistic behavior.

This research adopts a static perspective. It is known that alliances evolve, and develop. Consequently, future research could extend and modify this study along this dimension and analyze the evolution of unilateral commitments through longitudinal research.

From a managerial point‐of‐view, this paper shows that motivation for commitments is different and their effects on risk perception can be contradictory according to the level of relational capital in the inter‐organizational relationship.

This paper is one of the few empirical studies that explored the concept of unilateral commitments and provided empirical evidence to highlight the significance of some managerial practices such as building trust.