Coordination, Learning, and Innovation

Abstract

This article develops an organizational view of the roles and impacts of e-collaboration. Drawing upon the dynamic capabilities perspective, e-collaboration is conceptualized as a change-oriented capability that enables a firm to identify, integrate, and apply its knowledge assets to meet competitive demands. Therefore, e-collaboration potentially has three organizational roles-coordination, learning, and innovation-that are associated with either efficiency impacts or competitive impacts. The main argument of this article is that firms in less dynamic business environments need e-collaboration for operational purposes, emphasizing the coordination role, whereas firms in high-velocity business environments need e-collaboration for strategic purposes, emphasizing the learning and innovation roles. An analysis of the way in which business environment characteristics interact with media characteristics serves to demonstrate the importance of strategic characteristics-in addition to media and task characteristics-in determining the success of e-collaboration.

Information Technology Adoption by Groups Across Time

“…Anything other than face-to-face meetings was unacceptable. Although, face-to-face meetings provide a rich and powerful environment for decision making, often economic needs, such as the expense of bringing people together, or the unavailability of people to have such a meeting at a particular time, require the need for a communication tool (Fink, 2007). If alternative decision tools are to become more pervasive in the workplace, it is critical that IS professionals not only help users become more comfortable with its use, but also be able to identify when the discomfort level might be sufficiently high to prevent the tools from being used effectively.…”

Enterprise Content Management Systems as a Knowledge Infrastructure

“…The method of the KBCM concerns activities related to the knowledge value chain that supports the objectives of e-collaboration, such as coordination, learning, and innovation (Fink, 2007). First, depending on the organization's goals, strategic knowledge needs are determined and knowledge gaps narrowed down by developing, buying, or improving knowledge.…”

Creating Virtual Communities That Work

“…In addition to overcoming scheduling conflicts, the second advantage of VC is its ability for team members to be located across the office, the country, or even the world. Such teams can work together while rarely, if ever, meeting face-to-face (Berry, 2011;Fink, 2007). Even for team members located within driving distance of one another, VC allows them to avoid vehicular traffic and other challenges that accompany transportation.…”

“…As VC's popularity continues to increase in today's workplace, it is vital for empirical studies such as this to help organizations use their online resources more efficiently. Some organizations' very survival may depend on it -especially those within high-velocity business environments, which rely on e-collaboration for strategic and operational purposes (Fink, 2007; see also Maznevski & Chudoba, 2000). It is also vital for studies like this to offer guidance for current and future designers of VC software in order for them to gain/retain their competitive advantage in the market place (Berry, 2011).…”