Inclusion in global virtual teams: Exploring non-spatial proximity and knowledge sharing on innovation

Virtual teams, through their ability to bridge space over time, are an important component of globally dispersed enterprises. Inclusion consists of a team’s mission, effort, and practice to sustain a diverse workplace and leverage the influence of diversity to realize a rival business advantage. This study examined the role of inclusive non-spatial proximity and knowledge sharing in fostering innovation performance of virtual teams. Survey responses were received from 143 subjects with working experience in virtual teams of the top-2000 global enterprises in Taiwan and China that possess high rankings in the integration of international cooperation. The model was assessed and validated using partial least squares regression. According to the empirical results, organizational proximity influences technical innovation through knowledge contribution. Furthermore, cognitive proximity influences technical innovation through knowledge absorption. Finally, the relationships between cognitive proximity and knowledge absorption and between institutional proximity and knowledge contribution were shown to have industrial differences.