An Examination of the Impact of International Student Status on Global Virtual Teams

ABSTRACT

Scant research exists on international student status and global virtual teams (GVTs). Yet, study abroad post-COVID-19 Pandemic is rebounding and GVTs are frequently used in classrooms and workplaces. This article fills this literary gap through developing and testing models examining student status, performance, creativity, and leadership, while investigating the impact of English language ability in order to inform the international business education (IBE) field. Specifically, the focus here is to understand how international student status affects a student’s individual performance on GVTs. Hypotheses were generated that English language ability would moderate the relationship between international student status and creativity, as well as international student status and leadership. Results showed support, although weak, for these hypotheses. However, the most significant finding was the direct impact of English language ability on the dependent variables. Furthermore, an important contribution here is evidence that international students provide creativity and leadership on teams as long as their language ability is perceived to be good. Instructors may use these findings to design mechanisms to aid cross-cultural teams to work more effectively by providing a better understand how English language ability may influence the team and control for this ability when including peer evaluations scores in grades.

KEYWORDS:

• Creativity
• English language proficiency
• global virtual teams
• international students
• performance
• study abroad

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the Widener University Sabbatical Program and an early version of this research was presented at the Southwest Academy of Management Conference.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kerri Anne Crowne

Kerri Anne Crowne, Ph.D. is a Professor of Management in the School of Business Administration at Widener University. Her research interests include global virtual teams, cultural intelligence, cultural exposure, emotional intelligence, and knowledge management. Her work includes conceptual, empirical, and pedagogical articles, as well as teaching exercises, which are published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals. She is an active member of the Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS) and current Co-Editor-In-Chief of Management Teaching Review.