You reap what you sow: knowledge hiding, territorial and idea implementation

Purpose This study aims to build a research model from the perspectives of knowledge hiding and idea implementation to examine what factors influence idea implementation and the cross-level moderating role of team territory climate. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from universities, 52 (R&D) teams in China via a two-wave survey. The final sample contained 209 team members and their immediate supervisors. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to test hypotheses. Findings The results indicated that individuals’ knowledge-hiding behavior had a significantly negative impact on idea implementation and creative process engagement, which played a mediating role. Team territorial climate played a cross-level moderating role between knowledge hiding and idea implementation. If team territorial climate was at a high level, then the negative connection between knowledge hiding and idea implementation would be weaker. Research limitations/implications Under the perspective of territorial behavior in Chinese cultural, it can help to distinguish territorial behavior and be preventive at individual and team levels. This study not only enables managers to clearly understand the precipitating factors of idea implementation but also provides constructive strategies for alleviating the negative effects of knowledge territoriality on creative process engagement and idea implementation. Originality/value This study constructs a cross-level model to explore the relationship among knowledge hiding, creative process engagement and idea implementation at individual and team levels in the context of Chinese R&D enterprises. Additionally, the study analyzes the influence of territoriality on idea implementation under boundary conditions.