Network Configuration in App Design: The Effects of Simplex and Multiplex Networks on Team Performance

Members of mobile app design teams collaborate with each other to accomplish tasks and/or to socialize. However, how network configuration of instrumental and expressive interactions affects team creativity, efficiency, and satisfaction has not yet been studied. Accounting for both simplex and multiplex social networks in teams, this study develops a research model examining the mechanisms by which the centralization of different types of networks impacts team performance. To test our research hypotheses, we collected data from 62 student teams working on an app design class project. We found that the centralization of the instrumental-expressive multiplex network reduces teams’ information elaboration and similarity perception; the centralization of the instrumental simplex network is beneficial to information elaboration; and team information elaboration positively influences team creativity, efficiency, and satisfaction. We also found that team similarity perception negatively affects team creativity and positively affects team satisfaction. To alleviate concerns about the potential simultaneity bias between network configuration and information elaboration or similarity perception, we replicated the results based on a cross-lagged analysis with additional data collected from 48 design teams at two points: at team establishment and at project completion. This paper contributes to the literature on software development by examining the mechanisms via which the configuration of multiplex and simplex networks affects team performance.