Virtual Teams: Thematic Taxonomy, Constructs Model, and Future Research Directions

Background: Business competition, globalization, increasing opportunities presented by information and communication technology, the increased number of remote workers, and the emergence of computer-mediated groups have propelled the use, deployment, and growth of virtual teams in the past decade. A recent survey of 1,372 business respondents from 80 countries found that 85% of the respondents worked on virtual teams. The increasingly important role of virtual teams in organizations has spurred a parallel growth in research examining various aspects and challenges of these teams. Research goal: This paper reports on a systematic examination of the literature on virtual teams through which we provide a thorough review, analysis, and synthesis of research published in the past 10 years. Methodology: We follow the systematic literature review methodology proposed by Ramey and Rao to examine theories, research problems, research focuses, research methodologies, and major findings of 149 related studies on virtual teams published between 2007 and 2018. Results and conclusions: By using thematic analysis, we develop a research taxonomy that summarizes the main themes of existing research in the field; we develop a research model of independent, dependent, and moderator constructs that the existing research has examined; we identify the major limitations, unresolved issues, and gaps of existing research; and we suggest opportunities and directions to guide future research by proposing a set of research questions that remain unanswered. The research offers several theoretical and practical implications for scholars, remote workers, knowledge engineers, technology developers and designers, and professionals working in virtual settings.