Social computing implications for technology usage and team interactions in virtual teams

For a new generation of mostly younger users, using social technologies has become a habit. At the same time, there has been increasing adoption of social computing technologies as collaborative tools to facilitate knowledge sharing and team interactions in work contexts. Previous research has looked into the effects of differences in prior technology use and habit strength on intentions to use and actual usage of technology. Researchers have also shown how knowledge of the capabilities of a technology, affects team interactions and usage of the technology in virtual teams. Hence to understand the impact of collaborative technology usage on team interactions, it is important to consider both the employees´ knowledge of the capabilities of the technology as well as his/her prior experiences or habits with the technology. Considering these observations, and the ubiquity of global virtual teams, this paper proposes to conduct an empirical field study to find out the effects of employees prior usage of social media on their social media usage and team interactions within a virtual team setting.