Marketing and Management of Innovations

ISSN (print) – 2218-4511 

ISSN (online) – 2227-6718

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Identifier in the register: P30-0117 Decision dated August 31, 2023, No. 759

The language of publication is English. 

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Oleksii Lyulyov

Sumy State University | Ukraine

Virtual Teams in The University: A Critical Literature Review and A Research Agenda

F. Javier Miranda 1,   , Antonio Chamorro-Mera 1,*,  
  1. Department of Business Management and Sociology, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Extremadura, Spain

     * Corresponding author

Received: 11 January 2024

Revised: 12 February 2024

Accepted: 04 March 2024

Abstract

The incentives for the internationalization of universities and the digitalization of teaching driven by the situation of COVID-19 have increased the operation of virtual work teams in higher education institutions, both in terms of groups of students and groups of researchers. The objective of this study is to explore the evolution of academic research concerning virtual teams within university settings, aiming to delineate prominent research trajectories and outline a prospective agenda for future inquiry in this domain. This work involved a systematic review of the literature in the WoS and Scopus databases to identify what, when, who, where and how virtual teams in universities have been researched. The PRISMA method was used to guide the data collection process. Forty-seven articles were identified as relevant for analysis. Despite the significant development of academic research on virtual teams since the end of the last century, the necessary attention has still not been given to the specific case of virtual teams in universities. Most of the research has been conducted in the United States; however, previous research reveals that cultural aspects are relevant variables in the performance and efficiency of virtual teams, so it is advisable to extend this type of research to other countries and cultural contexts. In addition, we can also see that most of the works identified have analysed work teams formed by students, and there are very few studies on virtual teams of researchers, despite the importance of these teams in the context of encouraging the internationalization of research networks. Moreover, the review of the content of the articles as well as the future lines of research have been organized around a life cycle model, considering three categories: inputs, operating process and outputs-results. The second category is the most developed to date.

Keywords: collaborative technologies; COVID-19; higher education; research team; work team.

How to Cite: Miranda, F. J. & Chamorro-Mera, A. (2024).   Virtual Teams in The University: A Critical Literature Review and A Research Agenda. Marketing and Management of Innovations, 15(1), 195–209. https://doi.org/10.21272/mmi.2024.1-15

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