Abstract
Organizations increasingly rely on virtual teams, whose members are working together from different locations utilizing electronic communication media. Simultaneously, organizations are dependent on the generation and implementation of new ideas to keep solving the world's problems with innovative solutions. In this context, prior research approaches highlighted both positive and negative aspects of virtual team collaboration but has not come to a consensus of how it affects team innovation. Therefore, this meta-analysis synthesizes 178 independent samples including a total of 11.577 teams to obtain in-depth insights into the impact of virtuality on team innovation. Considering the integrated assessment of team virtuality through the dimensions of geographical dispersion, electronic dependence, and cultural distance, no significant effect on team innovation was revealed. Induced by the equivocal findings, factors that possibly moderate this relationship were investigated. In doing so, our emphasis was placed on the richness of the communication medium that transcends the virtuality between the team members and enables them to jointly work on innovative tasks. Our results indicate that the relationship between team virtuality and team innovation varies with using media of different kinds of richness. Thus, conclusions about media choice for innovative tasks in virtual teams can be drawn.
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