The effects of knowledge hiding on new product creativity in informational faultlines

Purpose This paper aims to explore how informational faultlines impact new product creativity through specific mechanisms. The study focuses on analyzing how knowledge hiding mediates the relationship between informational faultlines and new product creativity, and how team promotion regulatory focus and team prevention regulatory focus moderate this process. Design/methodology/approach This research investigates the proposed hypotheses by examining sample data from 65 team leaders and 370 employees, delving into the relationship between informational faultlines and new product creativity and its underlying mechanisms. Findings Knowledge hiding negatively mediates the relationship between informational faultlines and new product creativity; team promotion regulatory focus negatively moderates the relationship between informational faultlines and knowledge hiding; team prevention regulatory focus positively moderates the relationship between informational faultlines and knowledge hiding; team promotion regulatory focus negatively moderates the mediating role of knowledge hiding in the link between informational faultlines and new product creativity. The higher the level of team promotion regulatory focus, the weaker the mediating role of knowledge hiding between informational faultlines and new product creativity, and vice versa; team prevention regulatory focus positively moderates the mediating effect of knowledge hiding in the relationship between informational faultlines and new product creativity. The higher the level of team prevention regulatory focus, the stronger the mediating effect of knowledge hiding on informational faultlines and new product creativity, and vice versa. Originality/value This paper constructs a novel moderated mediation model based on the need-threat model. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first to explore the relationship between informational faultlines and new product creativity from the perspective of knowledge retention, effectively filling the research gap on the role of knowledge hiding between informational faultlines and team innovative output and the moderate role of team motivational-based psychological characteristics, such as team regulatory focus, in the aforementioned mechanisms.