Virtual Creativity – Bibliometric Literature Review on Measurements and Factors That Influence Creative Virtual Teamwork

Abstract

ABSTRACT Creative virtual teamwork (CVT) has become relevant for many domains of our daily lives: during the pandemic, school classes, business collaborations, and even private personal interactions took place online. However, virtual teamwork is still a challenge for creative collaboration. Research on CVT started decades ago, yet an overview of the field is lacking. This paper addresses this gap by presenting a bibliometric analysis, including 153 high-quality publications, to provide insights into the development of CVT research across disciplines and a thematic content analysis of trends in research streams and measurements. The results list the most impactful authors and journals, research disciplines and trends, as well as measurements of CVT. Research on CVT is growing exponentially and is conducted across various disciplines, mostly in education, followed by computer science, management and psychology. The results of the bibliometric analysis suggest a scattered research landscape, which calls for more interdisciplinary research, including common measurements for CVT across scientific fields. Plain Language Summary Creativity is one of the most essential and sought-after capabilities in the 21st century. However, fostering creativity in virtual teamwork (CVT) has always been a challenge for education and in business. CVT has been investigated from various perspectives, but a comprehensive picture of research on this topic is missing. To address this research gap, this paper presents a bibliometric analysis. The analysis identifies different disciplines and research streams dealing with CVT, research trends, the methods and measurements applied, and most relevant papers and authors in the respective fields. In total, 153 articles were reviewed. The bibliometric analysis reveals a scattered research landscape, which calls for more interdisciplinary research in the future. The following research disciplines have predominantly investigated CVT: education, computer science, management and psychology. However, different disciplines have similar ways to measure creativity, which is a promising starting point for future interdisciplinary studies