The emergence of communities through interdependent dynamics of physical, cognitive and virtual contexts: the case of collaborative spaces.

Research about the emergence of communities has mainly focused on a single context of interaction, either physical or virtual. To uncover the relationships between different contexts (physical, cognitive and virtual), the article investigates the progressive construction of different communities linked to collaborative spaces. Through a qualitative research based on a multiple case study, our analysis presents four distinct patterns of evolution, where different contexts were sequentially used, that continuously consolidated and enlarged the initial community. The results have significant implications not only to better understand community-based collaborative dynamics, but they also offer useful insights about how to successfully develop and manage collaborative spaces for R&D and innovation activities.