Unraveling the double-edged sword: When and how R&D team-experienced crises foster or hinder team creativity

Despite the growing significance of team creativity in fostering corporate innovation, its underlying generative mechanisms remain insufficiently explored. This gap limits our understanding of when and how crises experienced by R&D teams either stimulate or inhibit their creativity. Drawing on team adaptation theory, this study seeks to clarify the contradictory effects of R&D team-experienced crises on creativity by identifying two distinct team-level mediating processes: team silence and team reflection. Furthermore, by integrating regulatory focus theory, we uncover critical boundary conditions. Specifically, we argue that R&D team-experienced crises reduce creativity through increased team silence when leaders adopt a predominant trait prevention focus. In contrast, they enhance creativity through increased team reflection when leaders adopt a predominant trait promotion focus. Our research hypotheses are empirically supported by multi-source data derived from 544 questionnaires, including responses from 136 leaders and 408 members of R&D teams. A supplementary experiment was conducted to validate further the causal relationship underlying our hypotheses. These findings provide nuanced insights into the paradoxical effects of crises on R&D team creativity, offering a deeper understanding of the conditions under which crises can either stifle or foster innovation.