Knowledge creation in physical and virtually collocated product development teams

This paper reports on the findings from an empirical study of the knowledge creation process within physical and virtually collocated product development teams. Given that dispersed/ distributed/ virtual design teams are increasingly the norm in product development it is important to understand the dynamics of these types of teams. This study uses the approach reported on at a previous ICE conference (Sakiroglu, et al 2005). The approach uses a computer-based simulation of the product design process. The simulation is a role-playing `game' with five participants: project manager, design manager, marketing manager, purchasing manager and production manager. This novel approach allows extensive data to be collected (video, audio, text, questionnaire, and observational) and for the conditions (physical or virtual collocation) to be varied. It thus creates a virtual laboratory for the study of behaviour and interactions during the product development process. A comparison of the initial findings and a model for the knowledge creation process is presented in this paper, for both the virtual and physically collocated teams.