On the importance of boundary objects for virtual collaboration: a review of the literature

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we explore the phenomenon of boundary objects in the process of virtual collaboration. Virtual collaboration is an interactive act that interconnects jointly and voluntarily collaborating individuals that are electronically linked. We regard them as virtual communities (VCs). VCs are characterised by its aim to conduce to shared understanding through an effective use of boundary objects. Artefacts that serve two or more VC members to establish collaboration are seen as boundary objects. The study at hand uses the socio-technical systems theory as a framework to categorise extant research. It draws on the concept of Carlile’s three tiers of boundary objects (syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic) to further sub-categorise scholarly publications between 2004 and 2014. This leads to an in-depth analysis on the use of boundary objects, its effect on the collaboration process as well as a first research agenda for subsequent endeavours in the field of boundary objects and virtual collaboration.

KEYWORDS:

• Boundary objects
• virtual collaboration
• knowledge management
• socio-technical systems theory

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank multiple individuals for their helpful comments, especially Anne Huff, and thank the anonymous reviewers who provided very constructive feedback during the article revision process.

Disclosure statement

We like to thank multiple individuals for their helpful comments especially Anne Huff and thank our anonymous reviewers who provided very constructive feedback during the article revision process.

Notes on contributors

Marc Marheineke is a research associate at the Center for Leading Innovation and Cooperation at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in the field of mathematics and economics and graduated from the University of Liechtenstein with a Master of Science in IT & Business Process Management. His current research interest lies on knowledge boundaries during virtual collaboration.

Vivek K. Velamuri is the Schumpeter Junior Professor for Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer at the HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Germany. He holds a doctoral degree from Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. His current research focuses on business models, open innovation, and servitisation strategies. Since 2013, he is the program chair for the special interest group (SIG) innovation at European Academy of Management (EURAM).

Kathrin M. Möslein is Professor of Information Systems at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and a Professor of Management and academic director at the Center for Leading Innovation and Cooperation at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. She is a fellow of the European Academy of Management (EURAM) and serves, among others, as member of the advisory boards of the Peter Pribilla Foundation at the Technische Universität München (TUM), the Cambridge Service Alliance (CSA) at the University of Cambridge and the Fraunhofer IIS-SCS, Erlangen. Her current research focuses on the implementation of innovation strategies and technologies as well as leadership systems in service organisations.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research [01BEX03A12].