Cummings et al. Do SNS Impressions Matter? Twentieth Americas Conference on Information Systems, Savannah, 2014 1 Do SNS Impressions Matter? Virtual Team and Impression Formation in the Era of Social Technologies Completed Research Paper Jeffrey Cummings University of North Carolina Wilmington [email protected] Alan Dennis Indiana University [email protected] Abstract Social media has dramatically changed how we communicate and collaborate both publically and internally within an organization. However, minimal research has examined the impact this media may have within the enterprise, specifically in a virtual team environment. This research examines the use of one social media, Social Networking Sites (SNS), and how the information available through this technology can impact the impression formation process during the initial formation of a virtual team. Specifically, we examine how information available within a SNS impacts the degree of perceptions of social capital (i.e. relational, structural, and cognitive) among fellow virtual team members. Using Toulmin’s model of argumentation, we argue that the strength of information presented will increase perceptions of the social capital dimensi ons. The goal of this research is to understand how and what kinds of information impact impressions in zero history, virtual teams. Keywords Enterprise SNS, social media, virtual teams, social capital, Toulmin’s Model of Argumentation. Introduction The use of v irtual teams has become commonp lace in most of today’s organizations. Over 60% of corporate employees engage in some type of virtual team work (Kanawattanachai and Yoo 2002) with some organiz ations moving nearly half of their workforce to “virtual offices” (King 2007). The use of these teams enables organizations to not only overcome the increased cost and coordination of working with a dispersed workforce but also to leverage diverse expertise in problem solving (Martins et al. 2004). However, the benefits of moving away from the “traditional” office do not c ome without a cost. Virtual teams are often formed to leverage differing backgrounds w ith t eam me mbers having little to no prior knowledge of on e another (Jarvenpaa and Leidner 1999) . In addition, virtual teams may never mee t in person and may never work togethe r again in the future (Hung et al. 2004). Research suggests that in the development of “virtual” relationships, an initial face-to-face meeting is needed for effective future collaboration (Maznevski and Chudoba 2001; Rame sh and Denni s 2002). However, the div erse (and dispersed) workforce of today’s organization limits the likelihood of face to face meetings as coordination of such meeting s is often prohibiti ve. This limitation leads to the reduction of the socio-emotional processes of relationship development among team members (Martins et al. 2004). Research has examined the socio-emotional process in virtual environments through the use of computer mediated communication and conventional communication channels (Pauleen and Yoong 2001; Walther 1992); yet, questions remain unanswered concerning judgments or impressions of team members at the onset of team formation. Impression formation has historically been limited to the inte rpretation of information received through ongoing interaction via computer mediated communication such as e-mail, teleconferencing and in stant messaging (Beard 1996). The information exchanged among members has