A study on influencing mechanism of R&D team creativity based on team shared mental model

The empirical research about team creative atmosphere, team shared mental model and R&D team creativity functioning relations carried on in 215 R&D teams from 72 high-tech enterprises, involving a total of 651 R&D team members, covering Zhejiang, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other regions in China, and some significant conclusions have been obtained. First, derived from the intensions of “overlapping or consistency” and “distribution or complementariness”, the study constructs and verifies assignment-based and collaboration-based shared mental models in R&D teams, and providing research basis for the exploration of R&D team creative process mechanism based on cognitive perspective. Second, the study demonstrates the creative atmosphere in different teams will have an impact on R & D team creativity through the complete or partial intermediary roles played by two types of shared mental models, verifying and supporting that R&D team members' perception of relevant creative atmosphere on the one hand contributes to the formation of shared expectations toward team creative tasks, the correct guidance of team creative activities and the simulation of team creativity; on the other hand, it is conductive to the formation of shared expectations toward the obtaining of various information and resources and the collaboration of members' behaviors so that they will be adapted to the requirements of the creative tasks and other team members; in this way, through cross-thinking and resource complementariness, the enhancement of team creativity is facilitated, and the revealing of “black-box” in the team's creative process is provided with useful explorations and supplements. Third, the exploration and verification of the interactive relations between two types of shared mental models further reveal the process mechanism of R&D team's creativity based on shared mental model, providing feasible paths and methods for the dynamic adjustment of shared mental model so as to continuously improve R&D team creativity. Finally, the paper discussed the implication of these findings on management practice and the prospect of future research.