Information technology is providing the infrastructure necessary for the development of new organizational forms. Virtual teams represent one such organizational form, one that is changing the workplace and providing organizations with higher levels of flexibility and responsiveness. While the technological infrastructure supporting virtual teams is largely available, there are a number of challenges arising from space/time dispersion and cultural diversity that can hamper virtual team functioning. Research on a range of issues surrounding virtual teams is required if we are to learn how to manage them effectively. Recent research has centred on virtual team inputs, socio-emotional processes, task processes, and outcomes. Much of this literature focuses on comparisons of virtual teams and traditional teams. While traditional team research offers valuable theoretical background and a starting point for virtual team research, virtual teams, with their unique managerial, technical and social challenges, call for additional, specialised research. In our work in this area, we concentrate mainly on understanding and addressing the significant task coordination challenges in global virtual teams such as for offshore software development projects.

Another related type of structure enabled by information technology that has become prevalent is virtual communities. While a few online communities such as Usenet newsgroups have existed for a quarter of a decade, more recently, the number of virtual communities has increased exponentially. As both virtual community sites and users grow in number, they have become a subject of study by both the popular press and Information Systems (IS) researchers. Thus, reasons why users join particular communities are of interest to businesses seeking to establish a web presence and for academics seeking to understand user behaviour. Understanding virtual communities is also of interest to organizations in order to be able to tap into their information and revenue generating potential. Our research on virtual communities consists of two main streams. One stream focuses on investigating the factors affecting knowledge sharing and participation in such communities while the other related stream studies how the commercial potential of these communities can be realised. The virtual team and community projects are described below.

Task Coordination in Global Virtual Teams

Global virtual teams (GVT) are defined as globally and/ or organizationally dispersed workers brought together by information and communication technologies (ICT) to accomplish one or more organizational tasks. While GVT can potentially offer productivity benefits to organizations, these benefits may not be realised if organizations fail to address their task coordination challenges. For instance, the cost savings derived from outsourcing software development tasks through GVT can be wiped out by coordination inefficiencies. GVT rely largely on ICT to accomplish their tasks, including work coordination. Previous studies have found that poor coordination causes GVT to produce fewer positive outcomes than collocated teams. While interest in the study of ICT usage in GVT has increased among researchers, there is little knowledge of how ICT can facilitate GVT task coordination.

The objective of this research is therefore to investigate how ICT can support GVT task coordination. Task coordination is the act of managing interdependent work activities among team members. Task coordination mechanisms can be categorised into three modes: the impersonal mode (standards or rules, and plans or schedules), the personal mode (supervisor-subordinate communication and peer-to-peer communication), and the group mode (team meetings). The communication required for coordination has inherent complexities. We propose that different task coordination modes possess varying communication complexities that can be optimally supported by ICT with specific characteristics. The portfolio of ICT mediated coordination modes for a particular GVT project should be determined by task interdependencies, member dispersion, and time constraints on the team. The effectiveness of the proposed ICT-mediated task coordination modes is being explored both qualitatively through case studies and quantitatively through surveys. Findings from this work should help guide future research and the practice of GVT task coordination.

Knowledge Contribution and Participation in Virtual Structures

Virtual Communities as Business Opportunities

A virtual community of committed members is of great strategic value to online firms and vendors owing to its ability to attract and retain members. However, online firms and vendors have found it difficult to instil commitment among their VC members. Therefore, one research objective in this area is to examine the mechanism of customer commitment formation in a relationship-cum-interest based VC. By understanding the mechanism of customer commitment formation in a VC, online firms and vendors can enhance customer commitment to the VC. Using the theory of reasoned action, this study suggests that encouraging participation among customers is the springboard for customer commitment to a VC. However, customer participation should be balanced with a proper mix of cognition and affect enhancing aspects, particularly those aspects that arouse customers’ interests and encourage relationship building among them. Online firms and vendors could benefit by encouraging personal relationships among their VC participants.

Another objective is to investigate the use of digital items in commercial VCs. Recently, digital items (e.g., avatars) have become widely used in VCs and online games. Sales of digital items provide revenue for Internet companies and VC providers who are suffering from the lack of a profitable business model. However, there is a paucity of understanding about people’s digital item purchase and usage. This project examines why people pay for digital items from the self-presentation perspective, by focusing on online identity, based on social identity theory. Preliminary findings show that the presentation desire of online identity leads to intention to purchase digital items. They also show the significance of online group norms and online group involvement in enhancing the presentation desire from the online social identity perspective. The work also identifies the significance of interaction effects between personal innovativeness and online group involvement in enhancing presentation desire from the online personal perspective. These findings can help advance theory and offer practical insights in the context of Internet business and VC.

The faculty members involved in virtual teams and virtual communities research are:

• CHAN Hock Chuan
• JIANG Zhenhui, Jack
• KANKANHALLI Atreyi
• KIM Hee Woong
• TAN Cheng Yian, Bernard
• XU Yunjie