Knowledge Transfer and Team Performance in Distributed Organizations

Abstract

The strategic significance of knowledge transfer to leverage team performance in geographically distributed organizations has been extensively studied. However, there is a dearth of scholarship about the interlacing dependencies between knowledge transfer, virtual collaboration, e-collaboration technologies and virtual team performance. This study explores the impact of virtual collaboration and e-collaboration technologies, mediated by knowledge transfer, on team performance in virtual environments. The authors report on the findings of multiple regressions and path analysis carried out on data collected from 219 key informants. The study found that virtual collaboration, e-collaboration technologies, and knowledge transfer differentially affect team performance. The authors propose a holistic framework which aligns virtual collaborative systems with business goals to advance the design and conceptualization of knowledge-based virtual teams.