Participation in business events such as meetings, conventions and exhibitions is costly, and building a highperformance team is vital. This study examines the key influential factors of team performance from the perspective of the “temporary organization”. Using a sample of 516 individuals employed by exhibitors attending trade shows, we demonstrate that “servant leadership” and “swift trust” are the two crucial factors in improving an exhibitor team’s performance. Specifically, two dimensions of servant leadership, namely conceptual skills and commitment to the growth of people, contribute directly to team performance. Swift trust not only has a positive direct influence on team performance but is also a partial mediator between servant leadership and team performance. The results have implications for managers seeking to create a high-performance temporary team.

Introduction

Business events such as meetings, conferences and exhibitions can play an important role in a destination’s economic development, especially in its hospitality and tourism industries (Alberca-Oliver et al., 2015; Hanly, 2012; Jin and Weber, 2013; Jones). According to Jones and Li (2015), business travelers usually spend money more than their leisure counterparts; business events help to extend the utilization period of hospitality facilities outside holiday peaks; and exhibition and conference facilities provide value for residents and enhance the attraction of a destination. There is increasing recognition of this contribution that business events make to a destination’s development, and consequently there has been significant growth of the exhibition industry infrastructure globally in recent years. The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI, 2018) reported that global venue space reached 34.8 million square meters in 2017, an increase of 7.7% over 2011. The Asia Pacific region has seen a surge in venue projects in recent years, driven primarily by China, which accounts for 70% of exhibition venue space in the region. Globally, China is now the world’s second largest provider of exhibition venues, only behind the USA. Despite the importance of business events for destinations around the world (Getz, 2008; Getz and Page, 2016; Kelly and Fairley, 2018), hospitality research lags behind the growth in the conventions, conferences and exhibitions industry. Participation in business events such as trade shows has significant cost implications, and therefore creating a high-performance team is vital for the exhibitors (Alberca-Oliver et al., 2015). A trade show is a temporary event, and an exhibitor’s team participating in the event is a temporary organization.