Institutional boundaries and trust of virtual teams in collaborative design: An experimental study in a virtual world environment
Introduction
Virtual teams can function effectively both within and across organizational boundaries (Espinosa et al., 2003, Levina and Vaast, 2008, Pauleen and Yoong, 2001, Romano et al., 2010). Yet collaborations across organizational boundaries have always posed challenges (Levina & Vaast, 2008). Whether it is with fellow employees or with partners or clients, the challenge faced by many is to find ways to effectively communicate and collaborate when addressing complex tasks. As organizations increasingly spread their operations and partnerships across wider geographic distances, teams are challenged to effectively engage in various forms of virtual teamwork.
Virtual worlds have been shown to be a promising and powerful environment for collaboration and communication (Schultze & Orlikowski, 2010). This is due, in part, to the affordances of virtual worlds that allow users to share a common space, engage in interactive design and development activities, and enjoy rich visual and auditory stimuli and feedback (Nah et al., 2011, Nah et al., 2010, Park et al., 2008). Because of these features, virtual worlds are able to bring people from different places and organizations to work together, socialize, and engage in collaborative activities in ways that mimic the real world. While some research has examined cross-boundary teams in a variety of contexts, “much team boundary-spanning research literature appears to implicitly assume the context of a single organization … and researchers need to be clear on the inter-organizational contextual conditions … and how they affect team activities and practices” (Calvard, 2014, pp. 133–134).
In an effort to address the importance of boundary-spanning teams in virtual worlds, we examine cross-boundary versus within-boundary collaboration where members have formal membership structures and existing institutional affiliations (e.g., business organizations or educational institutions). In a virtual context, trust is critical to the functioning of a team (Kim, Lee, & Kang, 2012). Trust among members is important in facilitating group productivity and influencing a team’s processes and outcomes, including team performance and satisfaction (Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1999, Jarvenpaa et al., 2004, Kanawattanachai and Yoo, 2002). It is therefore particularly important to address trust in cross-boundary teams where members of such teams may not share a common contextual and environmental foundation. Thus, the objective of our paper is to examine the role of institutional boundaries on the development of trust and satisfaction when virtual team members are engaged in collaborative activities in a virtual world.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: The next section presents the literature, theoretical support, and hypotheses. This is followed by the presentation and explication of the research model. Next, we report on the research methodology and procedures as well as data analysis and the findings. We then discuss the findings, limitations of our study, theoretical contributions and practical implications, and, finally, our conclusions.
Section snippets
Theoretical development
We begin our review of prior research by discussing institutional boundaries, which is followed by a discussion of the relevance of trusting beliefs and trust in team relationships. We then integrate these literatures in the formulation of the research model and generation of the hypotheses.
Sample and task
Two hundred and eighty-two MBA students from two institutions (600 miles apart in physical distance) participated in a Second Life collaborative design project. We randomly assigned participants to teams of two (i.e., dyads) with partners from the same institution (within-boundary teams) or a different institution (cross-boundary teams) thereby forming 141 teams.
Measurement model
To evaluate the psychometric properties of the latent variables, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed. Multiple fit criteria were used to evaluate the measurement model including the comparative fit index (CFI), the non-normed fit index (NNFI), the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR). Recommended acceptable levels for each criteria are CFI ⩾ 0.95, NNFI ⩾ 0.95, RMSEA ⩽ 0.08 for reasonable fit (between 0.08 and 0.10 for
Discussion of main findings
The objective of our paper is to examine the role of institutional boundaries on the development of trust and satisfaction when virtual team members are engaged in collaborative activities in a virtual world. Our results support the notion that trust and institutional affiliation matter for teams working in a virtual world. Our results demonstrate that trusting beliefs of team members influence team trust, which is significantly associated with team members’ satisfaction when collaborating on
Conclusion
Our study examined trust in boundary-spanning teams in a virtual environment and found that trust formation can take place in virtual environments. Handy (1995) argues that “trust needs touch” (p. 46) and that teams cannot function effectively without face-to-face interaction. Our study shows that this is not necessarily the case as cross-boundary teams are able to establish trust in a virtual world. Given that team trust contributed to satisfaction with process and solution in both within- and
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