Managing knowledge in large‐scale virtual projects: a community‐based approach

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate how virtual communities of practice (V‐CoP) develop in large‐scale virtual projects. Design/methodology/approach – A case study of a large‐scale ES implementation was conducted in Italy and in the USA. Findings – It was found that management can encourage the formation of V‐CoP if, along with the creation of virtual project teams they promote informal interaction between the team members, encourage commitment, and put together “the right mix of people”. Originality/value – Understanding how the technical and the functional communities communicated is meaningful to understand the extent to which different CoP can, virtually, overcome context‐specific barriers.