Antecedents and consequences of team reflexivity in new product development projects

Purpose – Although cross‐functional teams are increasingly relied upon in developing new products, little is known about the ability of teams on adapting team objectives and strategies to environmental circumstances (i.e. team reflexivity), especially when teams are operating within a highly competitive environment. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of team‐related antecedants (e.g. team empowerment) and contextual antecedents (e.g. interactional justice) on team reflexivity. The paper also aims to investigate the moderating impact of environmental turbulence on team performance (e.g. product success and speed‐to‐market). Design/methodology/approach – To test the proposed model, data were collected from 335 team members and team leaders of 107 Turkish new product/project development teams. Findings – The results of structural equation modeling showed that transactive memory system, goal clarity, team empowerment, and interactional justice are significantly related to team reflexivity. Moreover, the findings showed that team reflexivity is significantly related to product success if the environmental conditions are turbulent. Originality/value – The novelty of the research lies in the empirical test of team reflexivity in the context of teams with innovation projects (e.g. product development teams). Furthermore, the inclusions of team‐related and contextual factors as antecedents represent an added value of the study.