Understanding the impact of communications technologies on virtual team performance: An agent-based simulation model

Enterprises are constantly looking for ways to get the most from their geographically dispersed human resources by forming virtual teams, and leveraging communications technologies for enabling good team performance. The experience in using these technologies by virtual teams has been mixed at best, and the extant literature has gaps in offering satisfactory explanation for the variations. To address that gap, we have developed an agent-based simulation model to understand the dynamic complexities of the interplay between the characteristics of a virtual team, the task of the team, individuals forming the team, and the key functionalities provided by communications technologies, and to simulate the collaboration and work done by the team for its assigned tasks. Preliminary results point to the potential usefulness of the model to investigate the impact of communications technologies on virtual team performance.