Collaborative Distance: A Framework for Distance Factors Affecting the Performance of Distributed Collaboration

This paper introduces the topic of " Collaborative Distance " within Distributed Collaboration as being an introduction to this Special Issue on Collaborative Working Environments 1 (CWE). It starts in discussing various related concepts, identified during an extensive literature review, on both proximity and distance in distributed collaboration. Then, a Collaborative Distance Framework (CDF) is proposed in deriving its four dimensions and related factors from the existing body of knowledge. The section afterwards discusses the interest of such a CDF and introduces the articles published in this special issue. The concluding section discusses the articles' contributions, limitations and future work as well as recommendations for future research in this area.