Trust and performance in virtual teams and organizations - the influence of psychological, techno-structural, and social factors.

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Isabell Welpe
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance
• Term: from 2009 to 2013
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 134207522

In this study we investigate the influence of social loafing, communication media, leadership style as well as the moderating influence of culture, emotions and time on trust in team leadership and team members as well as team performance in virtual organizations. Trust is an especially critical condition for cooperation and collaboration in the context of virtual organizations, as the context of such organizations is characterized by high risk, uncertainty, information asymmetry and the danger of opportunistic behavior. Understanding the creation and implications of trust is an important research issue that has received increased attention in general management, economic and psychological research. However, it has been a challenge for previous research to (1) study the antecedents and consequences of trust longitudinally, (2) to understand how trust is created and maintained between virtual team members, (3) to analyze the role of trust in virtual work across several cultures, (4) to understand the influence of moderators such as time, culture, and emotions on the trust and performance relationships and (5) to study differential impact of trust referents. Our research setting offers a unique opportunity to address the aforementioned research gaps by pursuing a data triangulation approach (behavioral data from log-files, survey data, and field experimental data) through collaboration with a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) in a longitudinal research design in 27 countries. This project is a multidisciplinary collaboration among scholars from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, the Technical University of Munich, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants