Abstract
Virtual Teams in enterprise contexts have been well researched. However when concerned with scientific research studies often focus on a macro level ignoring the individual perspective of scholars. I report in this paper on observations made in two case studies on research collaboration, one concentrated on a large research network and one on the situated context of IS scholars involved in collaboration. I find that the characteristics of virtual work in enterprise and academic contexts differ notably. Whereas literature on virtual teams in enterprise contexts proclaim a strong need for the support of relational and cognitive Social Capital, in academic contexts rather structural Social Capital seems to be missing. I further propose to consider Social Network Sites as a tool to support research collaboration, as this IT-artefact seems to positively affect the emergence and maintenance of structural Social Capital.
Keywords
Research collaboration, Social Capital, Social Network Sites
ISBN
ISBN: [978-1-86435-644-1]; Full paper
Recommended Citation
Richter, Daniel, "Supporting Virtual Research Teams - How Social Network Sites Could Contribute To The Emergence Of Necessary Social Capital" (2011). PACIS 2011 Proceedings. 156.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2011/156