Integration of E-Collaboration Technologies: Research Opportunities and Challenges

Integrated technology support for collaborative work is a topic of great interest to academics and practitioners alike. E-collaboration has become a vibrant and fruitful area of research and application from many perspectives. Integration remains a major challenge, however, and a significant opportunity exists to advance the state of practice as well as research. We provide an overview of different forms of integrated e-collaboration technologies, along with examples of key application areas. Based on these examples, we analyze the research opportunities and challenges, and provide a set of recommendations for advancing our understanding of integrated e-collaboration technologies. The focus throughout is on behavioral and organizational issues related to these technologies, and on underlying theoretical perspectives. The overarching goal of the article is to identify important needs for research, based on a clear understanding of the key concepts, issues, and existing knowledge.