How team forgiveness climate influences innovative performance in college student innovation teams: a moderated mediation model

By integrating team design theory and organizational learning theory within an input-process-output (IPO) framework, this study examines the relationships among team forgiveness climate, team learning from mistakes and team innovative performance. We propose a moderated mediation model in which team learning from mistakes serves as the mediating mechanism and team shared vision functions as a strategic boundary condition. Survey data were collected from 145 college student innovation teams from a comprehensive university in East China. The results indicate that team forgiveness climate is positively associated with team innovative performance, and team learning from mistakes mediates this relationship. Team shared vision positively moderates the relationship between team forgiveness climate and team learning from mistakes. Furthermore, when team shared vision is high, team learning from mistakes significantly mediates the relationship between team forgiveness climate and team innovative performance. These findings extend the application of forgiveness research to the team level within student innovation contexts and offer preliminary practical insights for fostering innovation in student-led research projects.