Title: Modelling the characteristics of virtual teams' structure

Authors: Daphna Shwarts-Asher, Niv Ahituv, Dalia Etzion

Addresses: Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel. ' Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel. ' Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

Abstract: The main research question is whether output of virtual teams is affected by the teams| structure. A model, suggesting that the team structure can be manipulated in order to increase the team|s output will be presented. The study used an experiment, in which subjects, who were grouped into teams, had to share information in order to complete an intellective task. The findings indicated that virtual teams output were inferior to face-to-face teams output, and that structure did overcome two negative impacts of the virtuality – less effectiveness and less satisfaction; yet it did not raise the virtual team efficiency.

Keywords: e-infrastructure; electronic infrastructure; e-social science; electronic social science; virtual teams; team structure; team performance; teamwork; modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIDM.2009.026908

International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining, 2009 Vol.4 No.2, pp.195 - 212

Published online: 08 Jul 2009 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article