Managing Knowledge in Large-scale Virtual Projects: a Community-based Approach

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate how virtual communities of practice (V-CoP) develop in large-scale virtual projects. Design/methodology/approach – A case study of a large-scale ES implementation was conducted in Italy and in the USA. Findings – It was found that management can encourage the formation of V-CoP if, along with the creation of virtual project teams they promote informal interaction between the team members, encourage commitment, and put together “the right mix of people”. Originality/value – Understanding how the technical and the functional communities communicated is meaningful to understand the extent to which different CoP can, virtually, overcome context-specific barriers.