Advances in information and communications technology have made possible collaborative activities in virtual settings. Virtual settings can significantly expand the knowledge resources available, yet they also create additional challenges to the already difficult activities of collaborating. The purpose of this research is to provide a better understanding of how collaborative activities in virtual settings enable the different parties to achieve their desired objectives by examining them from a knowledge management perspective. Three aspects of knowledge management—knowledge transfer, knowledge discovery, and knowledge creation—are examined in the context of telemedicine projects. The findings indicate that an association exists between the types of collaborative activities engaged in virtual settings and the effects such projects are perceived as having. While this research focuses only on virtual collaborative activities in health care, it is likely that these findings are applicable to other industries engaged in such activities in virtual settings.
This article examines the relationship between interpersonal trust and virtual collaborative relationship (VCR) performance. Findings from a study of 10 operational telemedicine projects in health care delivery systems are presented. The results presented here confirm, extend, and apparently contradict prior studies of interpersonal trust. Four types of interpersonal trust--calculative, competence, relational, and integrated--are identified and operationalized as a single construct. We found support for an association between calculative, competence, and relational interpersonal trust and performance. Our finding of a positive association between integrated interpersonal trust and performance not only yields the strongest support for a relationship between trust and VCR performance but also contradicts prior research. Our findings indicate that the different types of trust are interrelated in that positive assessments of all three types of trust are necessary if VCRs are to have strongly positive performance. The study also established that if any one type of trust is negative, then it is very likely that VCR performance will not be positive. Our findings indicate that integrated types of interpersonal trust are interdependent, and the various patterns of interaction among them are such that they are mutually reinforcing. These interrelationships and interdependencies of the different types of interpersonal trust must be taken into account by researchers as they attempt to understand the impact of trust on virtual collaborative relationship performance.