The Role of Social Capital in Virtual Teams and Organisations: Corporate Value Creation

Abstract

The paper systematises the previous research on trust in virtual teams, by examining how trust and other elements of social capital can be created in virtual teams and where the value created by social capital resides. The study is guided by three main questions: What value can social capital create for virtual teams and organisations? How are social capital elements interlinked? What are the difficulties of developing social capital, and especially trust for virtual teams and how can these difficulties affect the process of corporate value creation?

Keywords: virtual organisation, virtual team, social capital, trust, value creation