Enabling innovation: Analysing the role of design thinking as a dynamic capability in enhancing team creativity and project performance

Design Thinking (DT), as an approach to fostering innovation, has garnered significant attention in both professional practice and academic research across various disciplines. In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, driving innovation requires renewed approaches that prioritise agility, adaptability, and other organisational capabilities to effectively navigate uncertainty and complexity. Consequently, this study examines DT as a dynamic capability (DC), emphasising its role in enabling organisations to sense opportunities, seize them effectively, and reconfigure resources to enhance innovation. By fostering creative problem-solving, DT not only strengthens the ability to innovate but also contributes to team creativity and project performance. Viewing DT through this lens is particularly important, as it provides a structured yet flexible framework that fosters innovation while ensuring organisations remain competitive in dynamic and uncertain markets. However, despite its potential, it is an emerging area, and the domain lacks coherence and clarity, particularly in understanding the dynamic nature of DT and its role as a DC. To address this, the present exploratory study aims to contribute to the growing body of research on DT by (1) synthesising and critically reviewing DT literature through bibliometric and thematic analyses, examining DT's definitions, measurement approaches, benefits, and developing a comprehensive nomological network that categorises its antecedents, moderators, mediators, and outcomes across individual, team, and organisational levels, (2) developing a theoretical framework derived from the nomological network, and identifying the key constructs that underpin the model, (3) examining the relationship between DT and team creativity and project performance, as well as antecedents to DT practices and the mediators and moderators that influence the interplay between DT practices and outcomes (4) empirically validating the model using advanced statistical analysis. To do this, a systematic literature review (SLR) comprising 93 journal papers published between 2010 and 2024 was conducted to help understand the domain and inform the development of a nomological network. This provides a typology for discussing the growing state of the art in the area of DT and innovation. Following this analysis, a theoretical model was developed, and hypotheses were generated. To test these hypotheses, a quantitative research approach was employed, involving the collection of empirical data from 363 experienced individuals engaged in innovation projects. The collected data was then analysed using Smart PLS, a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique, to evaluate the proposed relationships and validate the hypotheses. The key findings of this study reveal several significant relationships among the examined factors. Collaboration was identified as an important antecedent of DT. The analysis uncovered a direct significant relationship between DT and team creativity and project performance, and this relationship is mediated by entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Additionally, trust was identified as a key moderator of the relationship between collaboration and DT, playing a particularly salient role in strengthening this association. Furthermore, the findings indicate that team diversity moderates the relationship between DT and both team creativity and project performance, underscoring its critical influence on these innovation outcomes. Overall, the findings of this research make significant contributions to the field of DT. Firstly, the study synthesises a growing area of research and provides a comprehensive overview of DT studies. Secondly, it brings valuable insights and empirical evidence to show how DT can be understood as a DC to enable organisations to sense opportunities, seize them, and transform their resources to enhance creativity and project performance. Thirdly, it offers insightful thoughts into the antecedents, consequences, mediators and moderators of DT enabling its theoretical and empirical advancement. Finally, it pinpoints future research directions to scholars and brings practical suggestions for practitioners who seek to implement best practices in organisations toward enhancing team creativity and achieving high project performance.

Publisher

University of Galway

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CC BY-NC-ND

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University of Galway Theses (PhD Theses)