How Instrumental and Expressive Ties Shape Team Resilience in Digitally Mediated Construction Projects: The Moderating Role of Communication Visibility

Abstract Construction projects often operate in dynamic environments where team resilience is vital for survival. Although social ties provide the structural potential for adaptation, the specific mechanisms that translate these connections into resilient performance, particularly in today’s digitally mediated settings, remain underexplored. Adopting a sociocognitive lens, this study examines how instrumental and expressive ties differentially shape perceived project team resilience. Based on survey data collected from Chinese construction projects, the results revealed that instrumental ties exert a purely associative indirect effect on perceived project team resilience through knowledge integration, whereas expressive ties demonstrate a partial indirect association via team reflexivity. Crucially, communication visibility linearly enhances the impact of instrumental ties on knowledge integration, yet exerts an inverted U-shaped moderating effect on the link between expressive ties and team reflexivity, uncovering a critical asymmetrical boundary condition. These findings advance the literature on the relational antecedents of team resilience by disentangling its distinct sociocognitive microfoundations and revealing the complex boundary conditions imposed by the digital construction environment. Practically, this study offers actionable insights for strategically calibrating communication visibility to nurture team resilience in digitally mediated construction projects.