Enabling knowledge creation in far-¯ung teams: best practices for IT support and knowledge sharing Arvind Malhotra and Ann Majchrzak Arvind Malhotra, Assistant Professor, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA malhotra@bschool.unc.edu). Ann Majchrzak, Professor, Information and Operations Management, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA majchrza@usc.edu). Abstract This paper provides an insight into how companies faced with hypercompetitive environments are leveraging their globally dispersed knowledge resources through far-¯ung teams. Far-¯ung teams are virtual teams that are multi-unit/multi-organizational, multi- functional, globally dispersed and conduct their interdependent activities mainly through electronic media with minimal or no face-to-face interactions. A multi-phase multi-method study of 55 successful far-¯ung teams. The ®rst phase followed a highly successful far-¯ung team over a period of ten months. The second phase involved survey participation from members of several far-¯ung teams in multiple companies across multiple industries. Distinct communication and knowledge sharing norms emerge in successfuly far-¯ung teams. Four different types of IT support are required for task coordination, external connectivity, distributed cognition and interactivity. The communication and knowledge sharing norms that emerged can be used to test impact on failure/success of other far-¯ung teams. The impact of each of the four disctinct types of IT support has to be taken into account when studying far-¯ung teams. Teams have to achieve a strategic ®t between task characteristics, team composition and information technology support to overcome the barriers to knowledge sharing and successful creation of new knowledge in extreme environments faced by far-¯ung teams. This paper takes an extensive multi-methodology empirical approach to exploring successful far- ¯ung teams. It provides a theoretical model for future research on far-¯ung teams. Keywords Information transfer, Knowledge management, Globalization, Team working, Virtual organizations Introduction Faced with increasingly turbulent environments characterized by hyper-competition and the growing importance of knowledge resources Bettis and Hitt, 1995; D'Aveni, 1994; Hamel and Prahalad, 1994; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; El Sawy et al., 1998), successful organizations treat knowledge as the key resource of production Drucker, 1993). Shortening product life `` The challenge facing global companies is to identify, pool and deploy their knowledge resources in post-September 11 socio-political settings. '' DOI 10.1108/13673270410548496 VOL. 8 NO. 4 2004, pp. 75-88, ã Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1367-3270 | JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT | PAGE 75