Radical innovation without collocation: a case study at Boeing-Rocketdyne

  • Authors:

  • Arvind Malhotra;Ann Majchrzak;Robert Carman;Vern Lott

  • Affiliations:

  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC;University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA;The Boeing Corporation, Canoga Park, CA;Raytheon Systems Company, Dallas, TX

  • Venue:
  • MIS Quarterly
  • Year:
  • 2001

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Abstract

This paper describes how a unique type of virtual team, deploying a computer-mediated collaborative technology, developed a radically new product. The uniqueness of the team-what we call VC3 teams, for Virtual Cross-value-chain, Creative Collaborative Teams-stemmed from the fact that it was inter-organizational and virtual, and had to compete for the attention of team members who also belong to collocated teams within their own organizations. Existing research on virtual teams does not fully address the challenges of such VC3 teams. Using the case of Boeing-Rocketdyne, we describe the behavior of members of a VC3 team to derive implications for research on virtual teaming, especially for studying teams within emerging contexts such as the one we observed. The data we collected also allowed us to identify successful managerial practices and develop recommendations for managers responsible for such teams.