From Interpersonal Trust to Team Performance in App Design: Roles of Transactive Memory Systems and Social Ties

Abstract

The studies examining how interpersonal trust at the dyadic individual level affects team performance in app design have been sparse. Drawing upon the perspectives of transactive memory systems (TMS) and social ties, we propose that TMS mediates the effect of interpersonal trust on team performance. In addition, the centralization of instrumental ties and expressive ties moderates the effect of interpersonal trust and TMS. We capture team performance holistically with solution creativity, team efficiency, and member satisfaction. For hypothesis testing, we collect data based on a term project of app design with 79 teams at a major university in China. Our results show that the centralization of instrumental ties strengthens the relationship between interpersonal trust and TMS. The centralization of expressive ties weakens the relationship between trust and TMS and that between TMS and team performance. The mediating effect of TMS is moderated by the centralization of instrumental and expressive ties.