What Drives Team Success? Large-Scale Evidence on the Role of the Team Player Effect
Nico Elbert, Alicia von Schenk, Fabian Kosse, Victor Klockmann, Nikolai Stein, Christoph Flath

TL;DR
This study uses data from a real-time strategy game to show that certain individuals consistently enhance team success through social skills, especially in larger, familiar teams, beyond their technical abilities.
Contribution
It provides large-scale, quasi-randomized evidence of the 'team player effect' and its interaction with team familiarity and size in high-pressure settings.
Findings
Certain individuals improve team outcomes beyond technical skills.
Team familiarity amplifies the positive impact of social skills.
The team player effect increases with team size.
Abstract
Effective teamwork is essential in structured, performance-driven environments, from professional organizations to high-stakes competitive settings. As tasks grow more complex, achieving high performance requires not only technical proficiency but also strong interpersonal skills that allow individuals to coordinate effectively within teams. While prior research has identified social skills and familiarity as key drivers of team success, their joint effects -- particularly in temporary teams -- remain underexplored due to data and methodological constraints. To address this gap, we analyze a large-scale panel dataset from the real-time strategy game Age of Empires II, where players are assigned quasi-randomly to temporary teams and must coordinate under dynamic, high-pressure conditions. We isolate individual contributions by comparing observed match outcomes with predictions based on…
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Taxonomy
TopicsTeam Dynamics and Performance · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Conflict Management and Negotiation
