International Business Education Using Global Virtual Teams: Relationship between Cultural Intelligence, Global Knowledge, and Team Performance

Corporate employees must interact with people from different cultures in cross-cultural environments. This study examined the extent that cultural intelligence and global knowledge predicted team performance for university students engaged in collaborative team projects resembling the global corporate work environment. The sample for this study was 2,012 students who participated in the X-Culture Global Virtual Team Project during the spring semester of 2015. Participants were members of 412 teams representing 40 countries and attending 95 universities. Study results indicated that global knowledge and cultural intelligence significantly relate to team performance. Cultural intelligence is a significant partial mediation between global knowledge and team performance in international business courses.