An E-Collaboration Overview of Behavior and its Relationship with Evolutionary Factors

The collaboration of individuals across large geographic distances began some time ago, perhaps as far back as the 19th century, with the invention of the telegraph, due to its significant impact on communication (Teresko, 2000). Today, with the increased use of computers, the Internet, and the World Wide Web, electronic communication (e-communication), as well as electronic collaboration (e-collaboration) offer individuals around the world the possibility of working together. The wide use of tools such as e-mail and instant messaging, among others, captured the attention of scholars, who began searching for theories that could explain the behavior surrounding the use of electronic media (Kock, 2005b; Simon, 2006). Throughout the years, researchers have provided a number of explanations in order to offer a better understanding of the factors influencing the use of technology in communication. For instance, the media richness theory holds that face-to-face communication is the richest media available, therefore other forms of communication (such as e-mail) are leaner types of media (Daft & Lengel, 1986). On the other hand, in task-technology fit theory, the outcomes do not necessarily depend on the media being used. In this theory, outcomes do not depend on the technology itself, but vary according to how appropriate the technology is for the task being accomplished (Dennis, Wixom, & Vandenberg, 2001). Other explanations involve social context and its influence on the use of technology (Kock 2005b; Markus, 1994; Simon, 2006). A more recent explanation is the media naturalness model, which goes a step forward and presents evolution as a means to understanding human communication. This view holds that, throughout evolution, humans have become adapted to certain elements of communication, which today are considered “natural” and relates these elements to the use of electronic communication tools (Kock, 2004, 2005b). The objective of this article is to provide an overview of some of the views surrounding e-collaboration, focusing on possible evolutionary explanations of behavior toward it.