Prof. Dr. Helene Tenzer was a panelist at the VHB conference in Göttingen

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The 85th Annual Conference of the Association of University Professors of Business Administration (VHB Conference) is the leading academic conference in the field of business administration and took place in Göttingen from March 18–20, 2026. The conference addressed the role and responsibility of the discipline in shaping a sustainable future, with a particular focus on business and entrepreneurship.

Prof. Dr. Helene Tenzer, Professor of International Management, participated in the panel discussion “Global Virtual Work: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Integrative Approaches” at the VHB Conference, which brought together experts from the fields of human resources, business informatics, and international management. The panel’s goal was to bring together key perspectives from the various research disciplines, identify commonalities and differences, and generate ideas for future interdisciplinary research.

Global collaboration is currently undergoing a fundamental transformation. Whereas organizations operating internationally used to rely heavily on physical mobility (e.g., expatriates or international business travel), virtual forms of global collaboration are becoming increasingly important.

Research on global virtual work therefore spans several disciplines. While international management focuses on global aspects, information systems addresses the technical side of virtual communication, and human resource management examines work design.

Key takeaways from the discussion:

- Virtual teamwork is very common in practice (especially since the pandemic) and is constantly evolving. Companies have high expectations but underestimate the effort required for coordination. Virtual collaboration does not work simply by providing online communication tools such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom. Employees need to be motivated remotely, as there is a lack of informal interactions in the work environment, personal relationships with colleagues are harder to build, and commitment to the team is often lower. E-leadership is more challenging than in-person leadership. Regular in-person meetings, shared experiences, and stable team compositions over an extended period can help foster commitment.

- Additional challenges posed by the global aspect include different time zones, which, for example, make it difficult to coordinate schedules or extend working hours. Local accents can sometimes be hard to understand, and communication issues often arise due to factors such as unstable internet connections; furthermore, colleagues from different cultures may have contrasting feedback styles.

- AI tools and virtual reality technologies are currently revolutionizing virtual collaboration. However, the exact impact of these new technologies is not yet clear. It remains to be seen whether new technologies will make virtual collaboration feel more natural in the future—and thus bring teams closer together—or whether new inequalities will emerge because not everyone has access to these technologies.

These are compelling questions and research topics that warrant further investigation.