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Global virtual teams (GVTs) – composed of members in two or more countries who work together primarily using information and communication technologies – are increasingly prevalent in organizations today. There has been a burgeoning of research on this relatively new organizational unit, spanning various academic disciplines. In this chapter, we review and discuss the major developments in this area of research. Based on our review, we identify areas in need of future research, suggest research directions that have the potential to enhance theory development, and provide practical guidelines on managing and working in GVTs.

Ongoing advancements in technology provide the opportunity to build and to improve successful virtual teams. Organizational leaders are facing a dynamic and competitive environment that requires levels of flexibility and fast responses to the global marketplace. The virtual team structure is built on communication that is impacted by the ability of the team members to engage with integrated collaborative technology. Advances in technology enable team members of virtual teams to communicate crucial information and to be perceived as inclusive. Communication technologies have characteristics and capabilities that allow for different levels of communication richness, which refers to the quantity and quality of the shared information provided by the technology. There are two broad categories of collaboration technology: communication-focused technology and coordination-focused technology. Communication-focused technologies are considered key contributors to building trust in virtual teams. Coordination-focused technology refers to a complementary set of tools that can be leveraged to enhance trust and coordination among team members. Advances in technology that are discussed: real-time communications protocols enhances video calls through any type of device including wearable technology; Internet of Things making it easier and more natural for people to interact with the objects to stay connected; higher video resolution continues to improve in terms of price, quality, and performance, which will increase the number and type of devices for communication.

In an environment of constant technological change, the use of virtual teams (VTs) has become commonplace for many organizations. VTs bring together dispersed individuals with varying knowledge and skill sets to accomplish tasks. VTs rely heavily on information technology (IT) as the medium for communication and coordination of work. The issue of establishing and maintaining trust in VTs poses challenges for these dispersed workers. Previous research has established that higher trusting teams have better cooperation and experience improved outcomes. The authors hope to contribute to the literature on trust in VTs by exploring how technology can facilitate high trusting teams. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to report the results of the research addressing the following question: how does the use of technology capabilities (TCs) afforded by virtual worlds (VWs) affect the development of trust in VTs?

A multiple case-study approach was used as the primary research design. Each case spanned a two-week period allowing for longitudinal data collection. The research was conducted within a VW setting with an emphasis on IT capabilities that are unique to three-dimensional VWs. Both qualitative and quantitative data collected during this process were analyzed at the group level.

The authors found that communication, rendering and interaction TCs allowed participants to use the technology to assess individual capabilities. While this paper answers some questions about how TCs can help develop trust in VTs, it also raises many questions. This study offers a model and framework for further work on this topic and encourages researchers to investigate other social and behavioral issues faced by VTs in a VW setting.

While this paper answers some questions about how various TCs can help develop trust in VTs, it also raises many questions. The study results may not be generalizable if the respondents who visit an immersive VW are different from those who do not have sufficient VW experience. However, the authors believe that the relationships between the constructs would remain. Another potential limitation has to do with how often trustfulness/trustworthiness were measured in the study. Measuring trustfulness/trustworthiness at additional points in the study would help determine specific points where these constructs changed. Finally, the study suffers from the common criticisms of case study research. Case research requires direct observation which includes cost, time and access hurdles. However, many of these challenges were addressed by using various data collection methods. Another difficulty is the need for multiple methods for triangulation and lack of controls. Again, the study addressed these difficulties by combining qualitative and quantitative data sources.

This research provides deeper insight for organizations using VTs in terms of how TCs can be used to engender trust. This has implications for how we design collaboration technologies.

The fundamental societal implication of this research is the conclusion that human behavior in the present world can potentially carry over in the VW and that TCs can be adapted and used to influence trust in VTs. This has implications for how we design collaboration technologies.

This paper offers practical implications for developing trust in VTs, specifically, how the use of TCs can facilitate trust development. The goal was not to recommend a specific technology platform, but rather explore how unique TCs impact behaviors in VTs. The study identified interesting findings relating to how people use TCs to complete tasks and collaborate on a team. These findings may be used to help develop guidelines and recommendations for using technology to enhance work practices in VTs.

Virtual teams are comprised of members who are located in more than one physical location. This team trait has fostered extensive use of a variety of forms of computer‐mediated communication that enable geographically dispersed members to coordinate their individual efforts and inputs. Perhaps even more important, however, is the reality that virtual teams need to effectively collaborate to harness their full performance capabilities in order to compete in the highly competitive environments of contemporary organizations. This paper seeks to address the topic of virtual team collaboration from a “back door” perspective by identifying conditions that need to be present in order for it to effectively occur.

This paper looks at how the depth of relationships, trust, and shared understandings among the team members feed into a team's collaborative ability, based on a thorough review of the literature. It also examines the interrelationships among these factors while suggesting that each of these antecedents is important and that the existence of one without the others results in a suboptimal collaboration model.

Using the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings presented, a model of virtual team collaboration is developed.

The paper has suggested that developed relationships, shared understanding, and trust serve as important antecedents of virtual collaboration. This raises the possibility that organizations can help create a context for team members to achieve increased levels of virtual collaboration by focusing on these potentially important factors. This, in turn, may promote subsequent innovation and performance.

The study aims to explore and explain the affordances and constraints of two-mode virtual collaboration as experienced by a newly forming international research team.

This is self-reflective and action-oriented research on the affordances and constraints of two-mode virtual collaboration. In the spirit of professional development, the authors (nine researchers at different career stages and from various counties) engaged in a joint endeavour to evaluate the affordances and constraints of virtual collaborations in light of the recent literature while also researching the authors' own virtual collaboration during this evaluative task (mid-January–April 2021). The authors used two modes: synchronous (Zoom) and asynchronous (emails) to communicate on the literature exploration and recorded reactions and emotional responses towards existing affordances and constraints through a collective journal.

The results suggest both affordances in terms of communication being negotiable and evolving and constraints, particularly in forming new relations given tools that may not be equally accessible to all. Journaling during collaborations could be a valuable tool, especially for virtual collective work, because it can be used to structure the team supported negotiation and discussion processes, especially often hidden processes. It is evident that the role of a leader can contribute to an alignment in the assumptions and experiences of trust and consequently foster greater mutual understanding of the circumstances for productive team collaborations.

The findings of this study can inform academics and practitioners on how to create and facilitate better opportunities for collaboration in virtual teams as a rapidly emerging form of technology-supported working.

Virtual teams had become a fundamental way to conduct business for organizations to remain competitive and sustain in a global environment. Organizations which willing to understand what makes virtual teams more effective can likely accrue positive results from virtual teams. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate what are the factors that impact the performance of virtual team. This study highlights factors that influence virtual team performance, which not been widely studied in developing countries (i.e. Malaysia). This study tests the impact of six factors (coordination, communication, relationship building, cohesion, trust and reward) on team performance.

A quantitative approach via self-administered questionnaire was adopted. A total of 205 questionnaires were successfully collected at the end of the data collection. Structural equation modelling using partial least squares approach (i.e. ADANCO 2.0 software) was then used to assess the relationships among variables in the virtual team.

After ensuring the data have acceptable reliability and validity, structural model assessment was performed to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that a significant and positive relationship exists between communication, relationship building, cohesion and trust towards team performance. On the other hand, no significant relationship was found between coordination and reward towards team performance.

First, the study may be slightly biased due to the differences in the size of the multinational companies. The result might tend to represent the bigger companies where more virtual teams are available for sampling of this study. Second, the duration of virtual team (long-term and short-term) and the number of sites in the team should be clearly identified. The respondents might have very different experiences and perceptions in different settings of virtual team environment. Therefore, taking care of these characteristics would have provided a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of factors influencing virtual team performance in Malaysia.

The findings from this study can serve as guideline for managers to manage the virtual teams effectively, as well as to optimizes the resources usage and implement the most efficient tools of communication, and subsequently improve the overall efficiency of the teams. This study is useful for researchers, managers and organizations to highlight the factors that contribute to virtual team performance.

The present study has not only extended the use of Media Richness Theory in the context Virtual Team Performance in a developing country but also broadened the previous study through inclusion of other crucial factor, namely, Reward. Given the significant role in the Global marketplace, the understanding of factors influencing virtual team performance in Malaysia using the extended theory of Media Richness would contribute knowledge not only to technology management but also to manufacturing service industry.

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of an in‐depth case study into virtual teamworking practices in a large petro‐chemical company.

By drawing on the case study the paper offers a theoretical conceptualization of the development of commitment and personal trust relationships in a virtual teamworking context.

The paper argues that the durability of virtual teamworking depends largely on commitment and personal trust relationships, which may gradually dissipate over time without collocated, face‐to‐face social interactions. The virtual teamworking technologies alone may have limited scope in contributing to reproduction and reinforcement of commitment and personal trust relationships.

This research is based on an investigation in one organization that used a set of virtual teamworking technologies, which have been constantly improving in terms of capabilities and usability. In a business context investigated in this paper, the team working was not continuous, and the level and the range of activities varied over time. Future research should seek to explore whether personal and abstract trust can develop through continued online interaction.

Findings indicate that virtual teams should seek to manage expectations of the use of such technologies in their interactions. Human relationships, rather than technologies are therefore important for nurturing both personal and impersonal trust relationships, which is vital for durable virtual teams.

This paper argues that the long‐term virtual teamworking without face‐to‐face social interactions leads to a gradual dissipation of personal trust relationships, and subsequently loss of impersonal trust relations.

This paper is the second of a three‐part series in which the authors identify best practice for implementing virtual teamworking to aid concurrent engineering. Part 1 examined how five key texts on virtual teamworking contribute to an understanding of how to introduce virtual working to enable concurrent engineering. It developed a structure for comparing and contrasting the texts for this purpose. In Part 2, four general areas of concern are identified from these texts. The authors suggest five other issues, derived from other texts and practical experience important to concurrent engineering involving the supply chain. Part 3 will then synthesise the key elements of a methodology for introducing virtual teaming in a design and manufacture supply chain utilising concurrent engineering.

In the postpandemic era, organizations have planned a combination of on-site and virtual work to portray the “New Normal”. The authors aim to analyze the effect of virtual team (VT)-building strategies on virtual team performance and HR performance in the “New Normal” context. This study aims to explore the drivers and barriers to VT performance and its contribution to HR performance.

The study utilized the grounded theory approach. Semistructured interviews with 114 VT leaders of national and multinational companies in India were conducted and NVivo 8.0 software was used to analyze data.

VT-building strategies contribute to VT collaboration and subsequently to VT performance. It was found that VT-building strategies catalyze VT collaboration which is impacted by the drivers and barriers of VTs, affecting VT performance and HR performance.

The primary contribution of this work is the development of a framework that delivers important insights to VT leaders, talent managers, HR professionals and academicians.

This study uniquely examines the VT-building strategies and VT performance through the “New Normal” paradigm lens. This study proposes a conceptual model for VT performance and HR performance. It also provides the team-building strategies, drivers and barriers for VT performance. This work offers the roadmap to achieve VT performance and HR performance. This research also contributes to the human resource management literature by discussing the VT performance and HR performance in the “New Normal” paradigm. It provides insights to VT leaders, talent managers, HR professionals and academicians.