How to Get Things Done in Social Virtual Reality – A Study of Team Cohesion in Social Virtual Reality–Enabled Teams

Abstract

Social virtual reality (SVR) enables teams tooperate in a virtual environment that simulates andenhances real-world interactions. However, there isan absence of empirical analysis of how SVR canaffect the performance of virtual teams. This paperdocuments how SVR affects the formation of teamcohesion (i.e., task cohesion and social cohesion),which is a critical success factor for teamperformance. To address this gap in the research, weconducted a qualitative study by interviewing 20members from virtual teams assigned to perform achallenging collaborative task in SVR. As acontribution, our study identifies five primaryaffordances and 11 sub-affordances for team cohesionin SVR. We also found that team cohesionactualization was limited in the use of SVRenvironments of our study. However, we conclude thathindrances to team cohesion formation in SVR can bemitigated by focusing on the further development ofmaterial properties of SVR.