Virtual World Project Management: Theory and Practice

Metaverses are immersive three-dimensional virtual worlds where people interact with each other and their environment, using the metaphor of the real world but without its physical limitations. Unique technology capabilities of metaverses have the potential to enhance the conduct of virtual projects, but little is known about virtual worlds in this context. We develop a theoretical foundation for virtual teams in metaverses that includes both technology capabilities and the social interaction that takes place in the environment. The talk provides the details of our conceptual model and results of an empirical study in Second Life. The results have intriguing implications for how metaverse technology capabilities might provide new ways to address gaps in the current research and practice of virtual project management and virtual teams. Both the theoretical model and the empirical work came out of a doctoral seminar co-taught with Deepak Khazanchi, in which the doctoral students experienced the entire research cycle of idea generation, research design, research conduct, and publication.