Virtual Team Effectiveness: Insights from the Virtual World Teams of Massively Multiplayer Online Games

Over the years, an explosive growth in the use of virtual teams in organizations has been noticed. However, the individual and team factors that result in the team effectiveness of a virtual team still remain unclear. The purpose of the paper is to try to comprehend how virtual teams work better, by shedding light on the Virtual World Teams of Massively Multiplayer Online Games. A framework based on the input‐process‐output model was used to test the relationships between leader emotional intelligence, task interdependence, cooperative group norms, social capital, team cohesion, transformational leadership, and team effectiveness in virtual teams, from a multilevel perspective. Structural equations modeling (N = 500) revealed that leader emotional intelligence is positively related to transformational leadership, which in turn is associated with virtual team effectiveness. Moreover, a significant relation between task interdependence, cooperative group norms, social capital, team cohesion, and virtual team effectiveness was revealed. In addition, task interdependence seemed to also be related to team satisfaction, a subfactor of virtual team effectiveness. Finally, team cohesion has a partially mediating role between transformational leadership perceived at the team level and virtual team effectiveness. The study provides useful insights for leaders and human resource development professionals interested in designing effective virtual teams.