Quality Management and Collective Mind: Investigating University R&D From a Group Focus

This article analyzes how Quality Management (QM) practices moderate the relationship between collective mind (CM), and knowledge transfer (KT) and absorption in university research and development (R&D) groups. The data are taken from 257 R&D groups in different Spanish universities. The findings show that the relationship between CM and KT is significant when QM is included as moderating variable because QM permits better communication and fosters stronger ties between group members. In the case of knowledge absorption (KA), however, QM does not have a significant effect. The final section presents the study’s conclusions and implications. As no studies have tested these effects empirically, our conclusions are highly relevant for academics and researchers.