International Journal of Information Science and Management (IJISM)

The Effect of Knowledge Hiding and Team Collectivism on the Relationship between Team Errors and Entrepreneurial Team Sustainability

Articles in Press

Document Type : Articles

Authors

AliAkbar Aghajani Afrouzi 1
Ali Biranvand 2
Faramarz Heidary 3

1 Assistant professor, Department of Business Administration, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Prof., Department of Knowledge and Information Science, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

3 M.S. Department of of Business Administration, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

10.22034/ijism.2026.2069881.1890
Abstract
This study investigates how social and informational faultlines influence entrepreneurial team sustainability through the mediating role of knowledge hiding and the moderating role of team collectivism. The research was conducted among 2333 Iranian companies in the medical equipment industry, of which 472 had more than three members. A total of 197 companies agreed to participate (41.7% response rate), and 928 valid questionnaires were analyzed, with an average of 4.7 members per team. Data were collected using Ma et al.’s (2022) validated questionnaire and analyzed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS. The results indicated that both social faultlines (β = 0.472, t = 5.43) and informational faultlines (β = 0.317, t = 3.62) had significant positive effects on knowledge hiding, which in turn negatively affected team sustainability (β = –0.765, t = 27.64). Knowledge hiding also mediated the relationships between team faultlines and entrepreneurial team sustainability, while team collectivism moderated the effect of social faultlines on knowledge hiding. These findings highlight how team faultlines can undermine sustainability by increasing knowledge hiding, underscoring the importance of building collectivist, transparent team cultures to mitigate these risks.

Keywords

Social Fault Lines
Informational Fault Lines
Team Stability
Team Collectivism
Knowledge Hiding
Subjects
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International Journal of Information Science and Management (IJISM)

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 27 July 2026

  • Receive Date 25 August 2025
  • Revise Date 11 November 2025
  • Accept Date 27 July 2026

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