Determinants of the adoption of virtual team collaboration as a mode of knowledge transfer within innovation driven organisations

Abstract

Society 5.0 seeks to resolve social and economic imbalances through the integration of the virtual world and the physical world. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic the need and possibilities hereof has become so much clearer. This paper aims to shed light on the factors affecting the adoption of virtual team collaboration within innovation driven companies, as their primary mode of knowledge transfer. By getting insight into these factors, we will be on our way to enable individuals, companies and governments to promote effective adoption of virtual team collaboration. This in turn can reduce the knowledge gap that exists in developing post-colonial countries, by enabling knowledge to be better transferred between industries within the country and from outside the country. This paper provides an in-depth coverage of the existing literature starting by looking into knowledge transfer as a management principle, then looking at the innovation of virtual team collaboration itself and finally at the social system, an innovation driven organisation, into which the innovation will be adopted. The findings are then applied to the Diffusion of Innovation theory’s Innovation-Decision Process. By understanding these key determinants, organisations may utilise this guidance in the application of virtual team collaboration (VTC) as a mode of knowledge transfer when considering innovation.