Two Perspectives on Intellectual Capital and Innovation in Teams: Collective Intelligence and Cognitive Diversity

Abstract

Teams are increasingly the locus of creativity and innovation in organizational settings, and understanding what affects their performance is critical to organizational performance. We draw on research from two different perspectives on intellectual capital to theorize about the enablers and disablers of innovation in teams. The first perspective draws on collective intelligence in human groups, and the second is related to team composition, specifically cognitive diversity. Borrowing from these two perspectives, we generate theory to integrate our understanding of how collective intelligence and cognitive diversity contribute toward (or detract from) the team’s potential to produce innovative solutions and products.