How Long and How Much: Stress, Adaptation, and NPD Team Performance
(A2025-124091)

AUTHORS

Yang Liu, University of Westminster; Zhaleh Najafi-Tavani, University of Leeds; Ghasem Zaefarian, University of Leeds; Vasileios Davvetas, University of Leeds

ABSTRACT

Building on the Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress, we theorize that challenge and hindrance stress intensity as important antecedents of NPD team performance that manifest their effect through their impact on team improvised and preemptive adaptation as two distinct mechanisms. We further propose stress chronicity as a boundary condition of the NPD team stress process and suggest slack resources as a managerial solution. Drawing on a sample of 112 Chinese NPD teams, we observed that stress chronicity weakens the upsides of challenge stress intensity but attenuates the downsides of hindrance stress intensity. We also found that the effectiveness of slack resources depends on the type of stress and the adaptation process teams embrace in coping with stress. This study advances team stress theory by capturing the role stress chronicity plays in the team stress process and contributes to practice by offering important recommendations regarding stress management and resource allocation.