Dynamic Knowledge Transformation Processes for Virtual Teams: System Dynamics Approach

A virtual team is temporarily organized for a specific task and will be disbanded after the task has been accomplished. It is important to capture knowledge from the virtual team during its working lifecycle. Griffith et al. (2003) devised a theoretical model to explain knowledge transformation processes for virtual teams but lacked empirical evidence to validate the theory. In addition, no adaptive methods are able to resolve problems of a non-linear, feedback, and time-delay nature in the theoretical model. In this paper, a system dynamics model is constructed to provide simulative evidence to validate the theoretical model from Griffith et al. (2003) and resolve problems of a non-linear, feedback, and time-delay nature during knowledge transformation processes. The results show that a hybrid virtual team may be the most applicable among three types of virtual team processes. As a result, this paper also uncovers the positive and negative effects of emerging information technologies during their lifecycle of virtual teams.