What leads to effective team learning performance within university students? The moderating effects of ‘Guanxi’

Abstract

Although researchers have highlighted that guanxi expedite the flow of resources, their impact on team learning performance is not fully understood. Drawing on data from student teams enrolled in an entrepreneurship program, we established and validated a model exploring interrelationships between guanxi, entrepreneurial leadership and team learning performance, under the mediating effects of team cohesion and team efficacy. Data was collected from forty students in a time-lagged fashion over a period of four and a half months. Results show that guanxi moderated the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and team cohesion negatively during the initial phase of team development. However, during the middle phase, it was found that team cohesion contributed to the development of team efficacy. The results also shed light on the direct impact of team efficacy on team learning performance during the pre-final phase of team development. This paper highlights that guanxi facilitate team learning performance indirectly, even though to different extents, through early entrepreneurial leadership, team cohesion and team efficacy. Taking support of theories such as guanxi theory, leadership theory and group development theory, the main contribution of the study was to bridge the literature gap about guanxi and add new perspectives to the group development theory.