Scholars@Duke
Jonathon Cummings

Jonathon Cummings

Professor of Business Administration
Fuqua School of Business
Box 90120, Durham, NC 27708-0120
A307 Fuqua Sch. of Bus., Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications

Teamwork Coaching in the Research Development Process

Journal Article Small Group Research · December 1, 2024 Proposal teams play a critical, yet understudied, role in team science. This study advances our understanding of teamwork coaching in the research development (RD) process by analyzing proposal support in a U.S. Medical School (2009–2019). We find that tea ... Full text Cite

Knowledge creation through collaboration: The role of shared institutional affiliations and physical proximity.

Journal Article Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology · November 2021 This paper examines how shared affiliations within an institution (e.g., same primary appointment, same secondary appointment, same research center, same laboratory/facility) and physical proximity (e.g., walking distance between collaborator offices) shap ... Full text Cite

Where the boss sits matters: Work interactions among employees and physical proximity in the office

Conference Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings · January 1, 2020 Full text Cite

When team members perceive task interdependence differently: Exploring centrality asymmetry and team success

Journal Article Group Dynamics · March 1, 2018 In this article, we examine the construct of perceived task interdependence and propose that there is variation in how members perceive interdependence with one another, even within the same team. In particular, we introduce centrality asymmetry-the extent ... Full text Cite

Abandoning innovations: Network evidence on enterprise collaboration software

Conference Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings · January 1, 2018 The diffusion of innovations is a central problem in the study of online and offline social networks. Although a considerable amount of attention has been paid to when innovations are adopted, few studies have considered the reverse process of when innovat ... Full text Cite

Team innovation cycles

Chapter · April 5, 2017 We review prior research on team innovation to advance understanding of the learning cycles that teams undergo when they develop new products and services. We refer to the dynamic sequences of variation, selection, and retention as team innovation cycles. ... Cite

Barriers to knowledge seeking within MNC teams: Which differences matter most

Journal Article Journal of International Business Studies · January 10, 2015 Do international or non-international differences between members matter most for multinational corporation (MNC) teams? We consider two types of international differences, arising from geographic locations and national origins, and two types of non-intern ... Full text Cite

The impact of subgroup type and subgroup configurational properties on work team performance.

Journal Article The Journal of applied psychology · September 2013 Scholars have invoked subgroups in a number of theories related to teams, yet certain tensions in the literature remain unresolved. In this article, we address 2 of these tensions, both relating to how subgroups are configured in work teams: (a) whether te ... Full text Cite

Group heterogeneity increases the risks of large group size: a longitudinal study of productivity in research groups.

Journal Article Psychological science · June 2013 Heterogeneous groups are valuable, but differences among members can weaken group identification. Weak group identification may be especially problematic in larger groups, which, in contrast with smaller groups, require more attention to motivating members ... Full text Cite

Leading groups from a distance: How to mitigate consequences of geographic dispersion

Chapter · January 1, 2013 What should work-group leaders make sure to do when members are geographically dispersed rather than collocated? This chapter offers a simple answer that group leaders often fail to appreciate—communicate frequently with members. Researchers have demonstra ... Full text Cite

A theory of subgroups in work teams

Journal Article Academy of Management Review · July 1, 2012 Although subgroups are a widely studied component of work teams, much of the literature on subgroups has remained loosely connected and key questions remain unanswered. We integrate research on faultlines, diversity, and intergroup processes to develop a t ... Full text Cite

So many teams, so little time: Time allocation matters in geographically dispersed teams

Journal Article Journal of Organizational Behavior · April 1, 2012 Geographically dispersed teams whose members do not allocate all of their time to a single team increasingly carry out knowledge-intensive work in multinational organizations. Taking an attention-based view of team design, we investigate the antecedents an ... Full text Cite

Communication Technology and Friendship During the Transition from High School to College

Chapter · March 22, 2012 This chapter examines the use of the Internet by young people to maintain social ties after they move from high school to college. It finds that when young adults move away from home to go to college, technology-mediated communication retards the natural d ... Full text Cite

Time separation, coordination, and performance in technical teams

Journal Article IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management · February 1, 2012 Technical teams are often distributed across geographic locations and across time zones. While spatial and time separation are often correlated, most prior studies have only focused on one or the other. As a consequence, their respective effects may be con ... Full text Cite

When critical knowledge is most critical: Centralization in knowledge-intensive teams

Journal Article Small Group Research · December 1, 2011 Knowledge-intensive teams rely on the task-relevant knowledge held by members to perform effectively. In this article, we focus on critical knowledge, defined as the most influential information, know-how, or feedback that contributes directly to task outc ... Full text Cite

Organization theory and new ways of working in science

Journal Article 2011 Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy: Building Capacity for Scientific Innovation and Outcomes, ACSIP 2011, Proceedings · November 21, 2011 Dramatic changes in the practice of science over the past half a century, including trends towards working in teams and on large projects, and geographically distributed and interdisciplinary collaboration, have created opportunities and challenges for sci ... Full text Cite

Economic and business dimensions

Journal Article Communications of the ACM · August 1, 2011 Just because a team is virtual, it doesn't mean geography is dead. © 2011 ACM. ... Full text Cite

Why project networks beat project teams

Journal Article MIT Sloan Management Review · March 1, 2011 Cite

Striking a balance: The impact of balanced versus imbalanced subgroups on work team performance

Conference Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings · January 1, 2011 A longstanding controversy in research on work teams is whether teams are better off with a balanced configuration of subgroups in which there are no majorities and minorities, or an imbalanced configuration of subgroups in which majorities and minorities ... Full text Cite

Research team integration: What it is and why it matters

Journal Article Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW · January 1, 2011 Science policy across the world emphasizes the desirability of research teams that can integrate diverse perspectives and expertise into new knowledge, methods, and products. However, integration in research work is not well understood. Based on retrospect ... Full text Cite

What's in a move? Normal disruption and a design challenge

Journal Article Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings · January 1, 2011 The CHI community has led efforts to support teamwork, but has neglected team disruption, as may occur if team members relocate to another institution. We studied moves in 548 interdisciplinary research projects with 2691 researchers (PIs). Moves, and thus ... Full text Cite

A faultline-based model of team leadership

Journal Article Academy of Management 2009 Annual Meeting: Green Management Matters, AOM 2009 · December 1, 2009 Given that many work teams operate in proximate environments where member differences are salient and could lead to boundaries within a team, recent advances in diversity research would suggest that new approaches to the leadership of work teams are needed ... Cite

A faultline-based model of team leadership

Conference Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings · January 1, 2009 Given that many work teams operate in proximate environments where member differences are salient and could lead to boundaries within a team, recent advances in diversity research would suggest that new approaches to the leadership of work teams are needed ... Full text Cite

Crossing spatial and temporal boundaries in globally distributed projects: A relational model of coordination delay

Journal Article Information Systems Research · January 1, 2009 In globally distributed projects, members have to deal with spatial boundaries (different cities) and temporal Iboundaries (different work hours) because other members are often in cities within and across time zones. For pairs of members with spatial boun ... Full text Cite

Keeping in touch by technology: Maintaining friendships after a residential move

Journal Article Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings · December 22, 2008 Many observers have praised new communication technologies for providing convenient and affordable tools for maintaining relationships at a distance. Yet the precise role of mediated communication in relationship maintenance has been difficult to isolate. ... Full text Cite

Does nationality matter in transnational teams? Conceptualizing barriers to knowledge seeking

Journal Article Academy of Management 2008 Annual Meeting: The Questions We Ask, AOM 2008 · December 1, 2008 In contrast to prevailing theories that emphasize the importance of nationality differences in transnational teams, we argue that there are multiple differences that can hinder collaboration among transnational team members. Distinguishing person-based fro ... Cite

Who collaborates successfully? Prior experience reduces collaboration barriers in distributed interdisciplinary research

Journal Article Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW · December 1, 2008 Two recent studies of over 500 interdisciplinary research projects have documented comparatively poor outcomes of more distributed projects and the failed coordination mechanisms that partly account for these problems. In this paper we report results of an ... Full text Cite

Does nationality matter in transnational teams? Conceptualizing barriers to knowledge seeking

Conference Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings · January 1, 2008 In contrast to prevailing theories that emphasize the importance of nationality differences in transnational teams, we argue that there are multiple differences that can hinder collaboration among transnational team members. Distinguishing person-based fro ... Full text Cite

Coordination costs and project outcomes in multi-university collaborations

Journal Article Research Policy · December 1, 2007 Multi-university collaborations draw on diverse resources and expertise, but they impose coordination costs for bridging institutional differences and geographic distance. We report a study of the coordination activities and project outcomes of 491 researc ... Full text Cite

A conceptual model of prior experience variety, knowledge processes, and group performance

Journal Article Academy of Management 2007 Annual Meeting: Doing Well by Doing Good, AOM 2007 · December 1, 2007 Existing literature has largely focused on the amount of experience with scant attention on the variety of prior experience. This paper develops the construct of prior experience variety, and argues that individuals with diverse prior experience not only a ... Cite

Spatial and temporal boundaries in global teams: Distinguishing where you work from when you work

Journal Article IFIP International Federation for Information Processing · October 15, 2007 While spatial boundaries include the geographic differences among team members (different cities), temporal boundaries include the workday differences among team members (different time zones). In global teams members have to deal with both spatial and tem ... Full text Cite

A conceptual model of prior experience variety, knowledge processes, and group performance

Conference Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings · January 1, 2007 Existing literature has largely focused on the amount of experience with scant attention on the variety of prior experience. This paper develops the construct of prior experience variety, and argues that individuals with diverse prior experience not only a ... Cite

The spatial, temporal, and configurational characteristics of geographic dispersion in teams

Journal Article MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems · January 1, 2007 As organizations operate across greater distances, scholars are increasingly interested in the work of geographically dispersed teams and the technologies that they use to communicate and coordinate their work. However, research has generally not specified ... Full text Cite

Routine patterns of internet use and psychological well-being: Coping with a residential move

Journal Article Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings · July 17, 2006 This paper examines how routine uses of the Internet for communication with family and friends and for entertainment may serve as indicators of overall levels of psychological well-being. At the same time, changes in psychological well-being in response to ... Cite

Communication Technology and Friendship During the Transition from High School to College

Chapter · July 6, 2006 This book brings together the leading researchers currently investigating the impact of information and communication technology outside of the workplace. ... Cite

Relational instability at the network core: Support dynamics in developmental networks

Journal Article Social Networks · January 1, 2006 We present a descriptive model of developmental networks - interpersonal ties who take an active interest in and concerted action to advance one's career - and argue that both network structure and relational content are necessary for understanding how ind ... Full text Cite

Collaborative research across disciplinary and organizational boundaries

Journal Article Social Studies of Science · October 31, 2005 Scientific and engineering research increasingly involves multidisciplinary collaboration, sometimes across multiple organizations. Technological advances have made such cross-boundary projects possible, yet they can carry high coordination costs. This stu ... Full text Cite

Functional perspective

Chapter · 2005 Cite

CSCW and cyberinfrastructure: Opportunities and challenges

Journal Article Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW · December 1, 2004 This panel will provide a forum for a discussion of important and timely issues surrounding the global deployment of cyberinfrastructure to support science and engineering research activities. Representatives of funding agencies, existing cyberinfrastructu ... Cite

Work Groups, Structural Diversity, and Knowledge Sharing in a Global Organization

Journal Article Management Science · January 1, 2004 Effective work groups engage in external knowledge sharing - the exchange of information, know-how, and feedback with customers, organizational experts, and others outside of the group. This paper argues that the value of external knowledge sharing increas ... Full text Cite

Tie and network correlates of individual performance in knowledge-intensive work

Journal Article Academy of Management Journal · January 1, 2004 We argue that individual performance in knowledge-intensive work is associated with properties of both networks and ties. Relationships crossing organizational boundaries, physical barriers, or hierarchical levels can, like networks, provide unique informa ... Full text Cite

Structural properties of work groups and their consequences for performance

Journal Article Social Networks · July 1, 2003 Over the past several decades, social network research has favored either ego-centric (e.g. employee) or bounded networks (e.g. organization) as the primary unit of analysis. This paper revitalizes a focus on the work group, which includes structural prope ... Full text Cite

COORDINATION AND SUCCESS IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATIONS

Conference Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2003 · January 1, 2003 The research enterprise increasingly involves multidisciplinary collaboration, sometimes over geographic distance. Technological advances have made these collaborations possible, and the history of past innovations suggests these collaborations are desirab ... Cite

Multiple Imputation for Missing Data: Making the Most of What You Know

Journal Article Organizational Research Methods · January 1, 2003 Missing data are a common problem in organizational research. Missing data can occur due to attrition in a longitudinal study or nonresponse to questionnaire items in a laboratory or field setting. Improper treatments of missing data (e.g., listwise deleti ... Full text Cite

Team boundary issues across multiple global firms

Journal Article Journal of Management Information Systems · January 1, 2003 Numerous methodological issues arise when studying teams that span multiple boundaries. The main purpose of this paper is to raise awareness about the challenges of conducting field research on teams in global firms. Based on field research across multiple ... Full text Cite

The quality of online social relationships

Journal Article Communications of the ACM · July 1, 2002 Online relationships are less valuable than offline ones. Indeed, their net benefit depends on whether they supplement or substitute for offline social relationships. ... Full text Cite

What do We Know About Proximity and Distance in Work Groups? A Legacy of Research

Chapter · 2002 Multidisciplinary research on dynamics, problems, and potential of distributedwork. ... Cite

Research on teams with multiple boundaries

Conference Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · January 1, 2002 The main purpose of the paper is to discuss: (a) types of boundaries found in field research on teams; (b) methodological challenges encountered when examining teams that cross boundaries; and (c) possible research design solutions. Based on our own field ... Full text Cite

Internet paradox revisited

Journal Article Journal of Social Issues · January 1, 2002 Kraut et al. (1998) reported negative effects of using the Internet on social involvement and psychological well-being among new Internet users in 1995-96. We called the effects a "paradox" because participants used the Internet heavily for communication, ... Full text Cite

Domesticating computers and the Internet

Journal Article Information Society · January 1, 2002 The people who use computers and the ways they use them have changed substantially over the past 25 years. In the beginning highly educated people, mostly men, in technical professions used computers for work, but over time a much broader range of people a ... Full text Cite

Beyond hearing: Where real-world and online support meet

Journal Article Group Dynamics · January 1, 2002 A random sample survey of an online self-help group for people with hearing loss was conducted. Two factors predicted active participation in the group: a lack of real-world social support and being comparatively effective (having less disability, coping m ... Full text Cite

Do we visit, call, or email? Media matter in close relationships

Journal Article Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings · December 1, 2001 People use a variety of media to communicate with family and friends, though the evidence is sparse regarding whether differences in the quality of social relationships can be explained, in part, by differences in the media they use. Participants (N=446) i ... Full text Cite