Factors influencing creativity in virtual design teams: an interplay between technology, teams and individuals

Creativity is a topic of interest across numerous disciplines and areas of study. Creativity constitutes a challenging aspect of engineering design, and scholars in the field of management claim that the increase in virtual teamwork calls for research as to how virtual configurations alter some of the management practices based on the collocated workplace. By reviewing the different literatures, we posit a knowledge gap regarding creativity in the virtual design context, where varying degrees of virtuality are likely to exert an influence on creativity. In our quest to start bridging this gap, we pursued an exploratory case study with a student-based virtual design team project, known as the European Global Product Realization (EGPR). Thirty-nine interview extracts, covering most participants, along with non-participant observation and document review, gave us insights into the nature of the project, the participants’ perceptions of creativity, and their experience of designing in virtual teams. In all, our study unearths and discusses a number of factors—and the extent to which—they are found to influence creativity in the virtual design team. The study has cross-domain relevance from those interested in the management of virtual teams through to those looking at creativity and design.