Analysing Research Collaboration On The Micro Level - The Perspective Of Individual Scholars In The IS Discipline

Virtual organisation of work is not unproblematic. An extensive body of research exists on topics like virtual teams in enterprise contexts. Similarly, in a scientific context many studies analyse collaboration among scholars. However, most studies here focus on the macro level (e.g. policy issues and the organisation of research projects). The role of the individual scholar in this is vastly ignored. I present observations from a qualitative study investigating research collaboration in taking the perspective of individual scholars in the IS discipline. I explore the different contexts of interaction in which scholars execute collaboration, and also the emergence of scholars’ individual social networks. Further I analyse tool usage, specifically focusing on Social Software, which, comparable to enterprise contexts, is gaining increasing attention in the academic context. Based on my observations I present two sets of propositions aiming at the emergence of a scholar’s professional social network and an adequate usage of tools for supporting collaboration.