Effects of Team Structure on Innovation Performance： An Empirical Study

Teamwork is gaining increasing attention in a broader management research. In addition to previous research on the relationship between team structure and innovation performance, this study draws from an interesting experience-based theory advanced by Kelley and Littman （2005）, which examines teams from design thinking perspective, and tests its contributions and effects on team＇s innovation performance. According to Kelley and Littman any team should include the following team roles： The anthropologist, the experimenter, the cross-pollinator, the hurdler, the collaborator, the director, the experience architect, the set designer, the storyteller, and the caregiver. We develop theoretical logics to explain how team structure that includes these key team roles and competences lead to a better innovation performance, and propose pertinent hypotheses. Experimental-empirical research and quantitative analysis were used in the study. The study conducted multiple experiments on three samples： a group of foreign entrepreneurship students, a group of technical students, and an additional group of randomly selected individuals, aged between 20 and 58, with diverse backgrounds. A special approach was implemented and a new instrument was developed to evaluate individuals in teams. While the results show that team that possess the major competences proposed by Kelley and Littman are more innovative, preliminary results also show that not all team roles are equally important. Moreover, team roles should be allocated equally among members for better collaboration, member satisfaction, and quick response, and within one team, one prevailing personality is optimal in terms of innovativeness. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and managerial practice.