Knowledge sharing in virtual teams: A research in information technology companies in Vietnam

Abstract

Nowadays, virtual teams bring both benefits and drawbacks to companies, especially to information technology companies. Improving virtual team performance is a requisite to speed up the development of information technology companies. This article conducts quantitative research on virtual team members in Vietnam’s information technology companies to investigate the relationships between social capital, risk of opportunistic behaviors, knowledge sharing, and team performance in the situation of virtual teams. The study uses SPSS and AMOS to analyze data collected from 268 valid samples. We find out a reliable 15-variable scale which can be used to measure structural social capital, cognitive social capital, rational social capital, risk of opportunistic behaviors, knowledge sharing and virtual team performance. The results show the positive effects of structural social capital and cognitive social capital on knowledge sharing and virtual team performance. The findings also reveal the negative effects of risk of opportunistic behaviors on knowledge sharing and virtual team performance and a positive correlation between knowledge sharing and virtual team performance. This article can be used as a reference for managers to build solutions for improving virtual team performance in information technology companies in Vietnam.

The larger, the fitter, the better: clans' evolution, social capital and effectiveness

“…This research also broadens the scope of current TSC research (e.g. Bao et al, 2013;Chau et al, 2017;Lee et al, 2015) and provides insights on gaming clans, which leads to focused generalizability toward settings of shared affordances (Gibson, 1979) that allow similar "opportunities for action" (Cardona-Rivera and Young, 2013, p. 1). Game settings "map" "reallife" settings surprisingly well because of the roles and motivations of the people involved (Williams, 2010, p. 451; see also Huynh et al, 2013;Trepte et al, 2012).…”

“…Bao et al, 2013;Lee et al, 2015) and work teams (e.g. Chau et al, 2017;Linuesa-Langreo et al, 2018), or on individuals' within-TSC building (e.g. Trepte et al, 2012; see also Kr€ amer, 2014, 2019).…”

“…Last, although some research recognizes that teams vary in evolutionary status (e.g. Chau et al, 2017), studies seldom emphasize the role of evolutionary status in TSC building or analyze TSC in longitudinal models. Therefore, this research fills the gaps by analyzing gaming teams that are competitive and self-organized in nature to enrich the field of study and examines the mechanisms of TSC from an evolutionary perspective.…”

“…Bao et al, 2013;Lee et al, 2015) and work teams (e.g. Chau et al, 2017;Linuesa-Langreo et al, 2018). Literature on the more self-organized (Dissanayake et al, 2015) and competitive teams, such as gaming teams (Benefield et al, 2016), could be enriched.…”

“…Second, most previous research studies TSC as an inherent ability and emphasizes its contribution to smooth knowledge transfer and performance (e.g. Bao et al, 2013;Chau et al, 2017;Dissanayake et al, 2015;Peng, 2009), which risks overlooking the mechanisms of TSC building. A few exceptions exist.…”