Shared leadership and innovative behavior in scientific research teams: a dual psychological perspective

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanism of shared leadership on team members’ innovative behavior. Design/methodology/approach Paired questionnaires were collected from 89 scientific research teams in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of China at two-time points with a time lag of 4 months. Then multilevel structural equation model method was applied to analyze the multiple mediating effects. Findings This study finds that: the form of shared leadership in scientific research teams of universities; shared leadership has a positive impact on team members’ innovative behavior; there are multiple mediations in the relationship including synchronization and sequence of creative self-efficacy and achievement motivation. Originality/value According to the “stimulus-organism-response” model, this paper has constructed a multi-level theoretical model that shared leadership influences individual innovation behavior and reveals the “black box” from the perspective of psychological mechanism. It not only verifies that “can-do” shapes “willing to do” but also makes up for the gap of an empirical test of the effectiveness of shared leadership in scientific research teams of universities. Besides, the formal scale of shared leadership in the Chinese situation is revised, which can provide a reference for future empirical research on shared leadership. The research conclusions provide new ideas for improving the management of scientific research teams in universities.

Configuration of prosocial motivations to enhance employees’ innovation behaviors: From the perspective of coupling of basic and applied research

“…So, it is harder for innovators to achieve highly basic-to-applied transformation behavior when compared with highly basic research behavior. This finding has been verified by Sun Y. et al (2020) that knowledge diversity and heterogeneity may harm knowledge coupling, and further confirmed by Liu et al (2022) that transformation behavior has to invest more time, energy, and resources to achieve high innovation behavior. Besides, it is the same as highly basic research behavior that altruism-based, collectivism-based, contextual, and situational motivations all assist in reaching highly basic-to-applied transformation behavior.…”

“…To obtain basic research achievements in a simple and exploratory environment without interests chasing, a stable personality tendency like research faith to the prosocial motivation on life and intrinsic values is very important. This finding is also shared by Liu et al (2022) that the members of scientific research have a belief in making innovations that will have a significant impact on their attitudes toward research challenges and the knowledge interactions with other members. Another common point is that altruism-based, collectivism-based, contextual, and situational motives all assist in reaching highly basic research behavior with the core condition.…”

“…Employees participating in applied-to-basic research activities should have a certain understanding of the organization, interpretation, and perception in a particular situation, and then decide what behavior they should have ( Bandura, 1999 ). However, employees in basic-to-applied research activities take the accountability for knowledge acquisition and regard academic achievement and honor as an important spirit pursuit, which can lead to highly basic-to-applied transformation behavior without attaching great importance to the situations ( Liu et al, 2022 ). So, highly applied-to-basic research behavior needs more passive motivations than highly basic-to-applied research behavior.…”

“…However, the correlation between the two remains low. The innovation behaviors can no longer meet the requirements of a highly differentiated and integrated knowledge production mode ( Liu et al, 2022 ). Therefore, the coupling of basic and applied research has become an important force to cope with changes ( López-Martínez et al, 1994 ; Nagane and Sumikura, 2020 ).…”

Remote International Collaboration in Scientific Research Teams for Technology Development

“…There is no existing team that seeks an extension with a hiring process. The group is teamed together from various organizations and needs to get along no matter what; and it is faced with high expectations from the grant giver [2]. Building a team spirit in remote teams with no touching points is a rare situation [3].…”