Paper Title
VALUE ADDITIONALITY OF MULTICULTURAL TEAMS:A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Abstract
Abstract - Businesses and projects bring people from multiple professional and cultural backgrounds together to deliver value for owners and other stakeholders. While cultural diversity in teams can be both an asset and a liability, this study aims to establish value additionality of multicultural teams (MTs). The impact of MTs and dealing with multiple cultures have received significant attention in research and practice. Positive impacts commonly reported include increased creativity and increased capacity to expand to new markets. Decreased team cohesion is widely acknowledged. This research goes beyond the pros and cons of cultural diversity in MTs. It provides depth and insights into drivers of value in MTs. It investigates the strategic attributes that make them a source of competitive advantage, including their rarity, irreplaceability, and non-substitutability claims. Very little has been reported on these strategic features in MTs and how to unlock them for the benefit of all stakeholders. This paper presents a conceptual framework of this value additionality of MTs, while empirical results will be reported on in the sequel to this paper.
Keywords - Multicultural Teams (MTS); Multiculturality; Organisational Systems; Value Additionality; Dynamic Capabilitiesand Competitive Advantage.