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This study aims to focus on three types of team faultlines (separation-based faultlines, variety-based faultlines and disparity-based faultlines) and discuss the different ways through which their configurational properties (faultline strength and faultline distance) affect team performance.

The authors adopted panel data regression analysis to test the model. Panel data of Chinese provincial party-government top cadres teams that covers 30 provincial areas from 2007 to 2012 were collected for data analyses.

The results revealed that separation-based faultline strength was negatively related to team performance, variety-based faultline strength had a U-shape relationship with team performance and disparity-based faultline strength had an inversed U-shape relationship with team performance. In addition, separation-based and disparity-based faultline distances served as moderators enhancing the curvilinear relationship between faultline strength and team performance. Notably, variety-based faultline distance failed to exaggerate the U-shape relationship between variety-based faultline strength and team performance; however, the relationship changed based on different levels of variety-based faultline distance.

This study discussed team configurations based on three types of faultlines by comparing differences between team configurations reflected by diversity and faultline strength. Settled in Chinese political context, this study empirically tested the interaction effects between faultline strength and distance on team performance.

Board faultlines, which reflect intrinsic divisions of board members into relatively homogeneous subgroups, are associated with poor firm performance. This paper aims to extend the existing board faultline research by examining how acquisition deal size moderates the negative implications of board faultlines.

This paper uses a sample of acquisitions and a quantitative research approach to conduct statistical analysis.

Using a sample of acquisitions announced between 2007 and 2016, this paper finds evidence suggesting that strong faultlines are associated with poorer acquisition outcomes in the long-term, but not in the short term. Further, this paper finds that the effect of faultline strength on long-term acquisition outcomes is weaker for larger acquisition deals than smaller acquisition deals. The findings are consistent with deal size moderating the relation between faultlines and acquisition outcomes.

This paper addresses possible endogeneity through firm fixed effects and instrumental variable analysis. Although this paper provides evidence on the moderating role of deal size in the context of faultlines, future research could examine the role of additional moderators, such as pro-diversity, trust, board leadership and board and task characteristics.

The findings suggest that boards need to be aware of situations where the negative effects of faultlines are more likely to come to the fore. For example, faultlines are more likely to play a role in more routine, obscure monitoring than for high-profile strategic decisions.

The study is multidisciplinary as it draws on the management, organizational behaviour and psychology and finance literature. It contributes to the developing literature on faultlines in several important ways. First, this paper supports their view that faultlines have adverse effects on board performance by showing that faultlines negatively impact discrete strategic investment decisions. Second, this paper provides evidence that deals size moderates the faultline-acquisition performance relation, indicating that the role of faultlines is contextual. Third, this paper finds evidence that suggests investors do not factor in board faultlines when responding to acquisition announcements.

Combining the punctuated equilibrium theory with the faultline theory, the purpose of this paper is to focus on member change of strategic core role holders in teams.

The authors test the model using data from 30 National Basketball Association teams covering 11 regular seasons, carrying out regression analyses.

This research illustrates how different types of job-related skills of core role holders that involved in member change might influence the team performance loss, and how team demographic faultlines would serve as a moderator.

This research demonstrates that punctuational change in a team is not always bad, flux in coordination and team performance loss could be avoided by staffing strategic core role based on specific job-related skill levels and manipulating team composition based on demographic attributes.

The research model initially provides an integrated perspective of member change, core role and faultline theory to explain the team process for punctuational change.

The purpose of this paper is to test the conditional effect of team composition on team performance; specifically, how collective team orientation, group consensus, faultline configurations and trust among team members explain the objective performance of project teams in cross-cultural contexts.

Employing path analytical framework and bootstrap methods, the authors analyze data from a sample of 73 cross cultural project teams. Relying on ordinary least-squares regression, the authors estimate the direct and indirect effects of the moderated mediation model.

The findings demonstrate that the indirect effect of collective team orientation on performance through team trust is moderated by team member consensus, diversity heterogeneity and faultlines’ strength. By contrast, high dispersion among members, heterogeneous team configurations and strong team faultlines lead to low levels of trust and team performance.

The specific context of the study (cross-cultural students’ work projects) may influence external validity and limit the generalization of the findings as well as the different compositions of countries-of-origin.

From a practical standpoint, these results may help practitioners understand how the emergence of trust contributes to performance. It will also help them comprehend the importance of managing teams while bearing in mind the cross-cultural contexts in which they operate.

In order to foster team consensus and overcome the effects of group members’ cross-cultural dissimilarities as well as team faultlines, organizations should invest in improving members’ dedication, cooperation and trust before looking to achieve significant results, specially in heterogeneous teams and cross-cultural contexts.

The study advances organizational group research by showing the combined effect of team configurations and collective team orientation to overall team performance and by exploring significant constructs such as team consensus, team trust and diversity faultline strength to examine their possible moderated mediation role in the process.

Top executive hubris is associated with positive/negative outcome. Little is known about the antecedent of hubris in top management team (TMT) and how they can be weakened to capitalize on TMT size and market complexity. This paper aims to address these issues.

This study draws on the social information processing theory. Subsequently, it proposes and tests an inverted U-shaped relationship between task-related faultlines and top executive hubris. Top management team size and complexity can weaken the relationship between them. Panel data were collected longitudinally from 2011 to 2016 on China's listed firm on growth enterprises board.

Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that medium task-related faultlines experience stronger than weak and strong faultlines. TMT size and market complexity can weaken the inverted U-shaped relationship between them.

This study provides pioneering evidence for an inverted U-shaped relationship between task-related faultlines and top executive hubris. These findings inform practice by suggesting a tipping point of team faultlines.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the curvilinear relationship between team informational faultlines and team creativity and the moderating effects of team humble leadership on the relationship.

The multisource and longitudinal survey data were collected from 85 teams. The authors conducted linear regression analyses to analyze the data.

The results indicate that the relationship between team informational faultlines and team creativity is inverted U-shaped and such relationship is stronger in teams with low levels of humble leadership.

The research reconciles the mixed findings in prior research and enhances our understanding of the functionality of informational faultlines.

Team managers should seek optimal levels of informational faultlines and make diversity coexist with similarity when assembling a new working group so as to utilize the benefits of team composition diversity and fuel collective creativity. Team leaders should learn humble leadership skills to encourage open communication.

The research is the first to adopt and build on the social information processing (SIP) perspective to explain the curvilinear relationship between team informational faultlines and team creativity.

A narrow focus of past diversity research and inconsistent findings have contributed to a lack of understanding of how to manage diversity for positive outcomes. Focusing on age, gender and ethnic diversity, this paper aims to review literature on group objective demographic diversity and individual perceived demographic diversity to present an integrated multilevel framework for our improved understanding and to present testable propositions.

The authors conducted a thorough review of 51 empirical studies of demographic diversity at individual and group levels to propose a multilevel framework.

Drawing on information elaboration theory, social categorization theory and social identity theory, an integrated multilevel framework is proposed at individual and group levels. The framework suggests that demographic diversity (age, gender and ethnicity) aids positive information elaboration processes, while also causing negative social categorization processes. These processes impact individual and group outcomes. The framework also identifies moderating factors not sufficiently addressed in the demographic diversity literature. Propositions and implications for future research in the field of demographic diversity are presented.

This review provides an integrated multilevel framework of objective and perceived demographic diversity and its positive and negative processes and effects at both individual and group levels, drawn from information elaboration, social categorization and social identity theories.

Demographic faultlines are associated with negative group processes and low performance. Little is known about the formation of faultlines in boards and how they can be weakened to capitalize on the positive effects of diversity.

This study draws on social identity theory and faultlines theory to provide insights into how gender and age faultlines are formed in a board. Subsequently, it proposes and tests a U-shaped board size–faultlines strength relationship. Archival data were collected on 288 organizations listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that small- and large-sized boards experience stronger faultlines than medium-sized boards.

This study provides pioneering evidence for a U-shaped relationship between board size and demographic faultlines strength. These findings inform practice by suggesting an optimal board size.

This study empirically examines the curvilinear relationship between top management team task-related demographic faultlines and over-investment, as well as how biodemographic faultlines and industrial environment moderate the curvilinear relationship between task-related demographic faultlines and over-investment.

The study designs the panel data from the listed companies of China's growth enterprises board (GEB) (set up by Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2009) in the period 2011–2016 and uses hierarchical regression analysis and grouping regression analysis in exploring the curvilinear relationship with the variables involved.

The study provides empirical insights into the relationship on top management team (TMT) task-related demographic faultlines and over-investment, as well as how biodemographic faultlines and industrial environment moderate the relationship between task-related demographic faultlines and over-investment. It suggests that the relationship between task-related demographic faultlines and over-investment is significantly inverted-U. Furthermore, biodemographic faultlines and industrial environment can strengthen the inverted-U relationship between TMT task-related demographic faultlines and over-investment.

The study investigates the influence of task-related demographic faultlines on firm over-investment. The sample is restricted to the listed companies on GEM in China and limited in size. It is also not concerned with the cross-culture contrastive analysis between the Chinese- and Western-listed companies.

The findings suggest that strong/weak TMT task-related demographic faultlines is beneficial in promoting rational investment, but medium TMT task-related demographic faultlines may lead to over-investment.

The study within the crossed-categorization theory, the study provides a contemporary research path by moderating biodemographic faultlines and industrial environments to explain the long-ignored impact of TMT faultlines within a new perspective of firm investment efficiency with a recent significant sample of new emerging countries (e.g. China).

The current research studies are inconclusive about the positive or negative effects of group faultlines, especially in the Chinese context. To address this issue, this study aims to adopt an interactive perspective to explore the group interaction process. Specifically, this study proposes a new construct “interactive faultlines” to integrate overall faultlines and separate faultlines, and based on categorization-elaboration model (CEM), develops an integrated moderated mediation model to examine when and how interactive faultlines facilitate or inhibit group creativity.

This study tests the model with the samples of 405 employees from 95 groups in China, carrying out confirmatory factor analysis, regression analysis and process.

This study finds that the indirect effect of informational faultlines on group creativity through information elaboration is positive when social faultlines are low, but negative when social faultlines are high.

This research provides some practical implications on how to manage group compositions and coordinate group interaction process to make full use of the potential benefits of diverse information and avoid the possible detriment from social categorization.

This study adopts an interactive perspective to consider informational faultlines and social faultlines simultaneously, and constructs a focal concept “interactive faultlines.” Based on CEM, it also offers a fine-grained picture of the double-edged relationship between informational faultlines and group creativity by identifying social faultlines as a moderator and information elaboration as a mediator, which advances knowledge about the linkages between interactive faultlines and group creativity. Particularly, this study is rooted in the Chinese context and brings in indigenous attributes derived from an analysis of Eastern cultures to elucidate the particular effect of informal social connections.