Sharing Knowledge in Global Virtual Teams: How do Chinese Team Members Perceive the Impact of National Cultural Differences on Knowledge Sharing?

I propose to study the impact of national cultural differences on knowledge sharing activities in global virtual teams. Specially, I will put the research in a specific context of Chinese culture and the U.S. culture. Only Chinese perceptions of the impact of cultural differences between China and the U.S. will be studied. I propose to use a two-phase study. In phase one, an exploratory case study approach will be used to explore how cultural differences impact knowledge sharing activities in global virtual teams and what kind of other factors that may moderate the impacts. The purpose of the case study is to understand the phenomenon under investigation and generate a set of hypotheses. In phase two, a survey will be used to test the hypotheses generated from phase one.