Does cultural intelligence promote cross-cultural teams' knowledge sharing and innovation in the restaurant business?

Abstract

PurposeThis research investigates knowledge sharing and innovation on the part of culturally diverse teams in the restaurant business and their relation to cultural intelligence (CQ), in which CQ was conceptualized as a team-level variable.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from 103 cross-cultural teams in restaurants located in five popular tourist destinations in Thailand and were derived from multiple sources to prevent common method bias. The data that measured team CQ and knowledge sharing were collected from all members in each team and were averaged to create aggregate measures at the team level, while the team supervisor evaluated the teams' innovative performance. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used in the data analysis.FindingsThe results indicated that those teams that demonstrated high CQ tended to exhibit a greater degree of team knowledge sharing and receive higher evaluations of their innovative performance than did those that demonstrated low CQ. The results also showed that team knowledge sharing mediated the relation between team CQ and innovation.Originality/valueCQ's contribution in cross-cultural teams measured at the team level contributes additional knowledge to prior CQ research that rarely has investigated the phenomenon at the aggregate level.