Although substantial knowledge regarding the antecedents and outcomes of leader–member exchange (LMX) differentiation has been accumulated, numerous questions related to this topic remain underexplored. To enhance the understanding of LMX differentiation and team-focused outcomes, this study proposed that LMX differentiation has a curvilinear relationship with team creativity and that team LMX quality (represented by the LMX median in this study) moderates the association between these two variables. An investigation based on 59 teams from multiple Chinese companies was conducted. The results indicated that LMX differentiation has an inverted U-shaped relationship with team creativity, and LMX median moderates the inverted U-shaped relationship. Specifically, for teams with a low LMX median, the curvilinear relationship is stronger, whereas for teams with a high LMX median, the slope of the curve becomes nearly flat, thus losing the inverted-U effect. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and directions for future research are outlined.

The innovation literature is rife with references to the importance of creativity, but idea implementation has largely been ignored. Several recent studies take an individual-centric perspective but neglect the team-level idea conversion process. To enhance the understanding of idea implementation as an important process of innovation, this study drew on the social capital perspective and proposed a team-level mediated moderation model. Data was collected from 63 teams in China. The empirical analyses showed that the leaderleader exchange relationship (LLX) moderates the relationship between idea generation and implementation, and team efficacy mediates the moderating effect of LLX on the idea generation-implementation association. According to these findings, we discuss theoretical and practical implications. Finally, we put forward directions for future research.