The Influence of Personal Traits on Innovative Processes in Virtual Teams

The implementation of virtual teams becomes increasingly common practice in organizations around the world. The progress in the development of new communication technologies in the last two decades have changed the paradigm of how firms-both established and entrepreneurial-approach innovation and new product development (NPD). This study is interested in personal traits of virtual team members measured by the five-factor-model that promote innovative behavior and therefore enhances individual performance. This study´s context is an online strategic game called Travian with servers from 22 countries. We assumed that people high in extraversion and low on conscientiousness, who can be described as open minded, outgoing, assertive, active, and sociable, and also having the tendency to be organized, responsible, and careful, profit from innovative behavior, that resulted in a higher individual performance. Results were counter-intuitive, as extraversion had the opposite effect. People low in extraversion did profit more from innovative behavior. Conscientiousness did not have a moderating effect.