Beke Marie Redlich

• In today’s world, corporate teamwork is increasingly characterized by co-creation and dispersed stakeholders that need to collaborate for specific purposes, such as innovation development (Frow et al., 2015; Yoo, 2013). The dispersed setting of team members motivates a virtual instead of an on-site performance of teamwork to increase the possibility of uniting multiple and suitable stakeholders for specific tasks, while reducing the efforts to commonly be in the same place at the same time (Lipnack & Stamps, 1999). To meet the needs of a contemporary, systematic procedure for Innovation Management in a globalized world, the collaborative and co-creative innovation development approach Design Thinking (DT) needs to be facilitated toward a virtual performance (Furmanek & Daurer, 2019; Gräßler et al., 2017; Gumienny et al., 2011). In order to prepare the foundation for a Virtual Design Thinking (VDT) approach, an in-depth examination of commonly analog-performed DT was conducted, and its underlying principles identified. The examinations on DT enabled to further investigate how the innovation development approach can be applied virtually. This undertaking was accompanied by measurements that indicate the success of the VDT performance in adhering to a socio-cognitive view on effectiveness (Gilson et al., 2015; Hjørland, 2002). With the aim to enable VDT, the research methodology Action Design Research was applied, which deploys practical, recurring, and meaningful interventions to gain insights regarding the collaboration of team members in a process of improving Information Systems in corporate problem contexts from a user-centered perspective (Sein et al., 2011; Veling et al., 2016). The emerging ensemble artifact, the VDT approach, mirrors an improved setting of given, real-life corporate problems (Purao et al., 2013). As a result, this dissertation presents an applicable VDT approach for companies that is perceived as satisfying and effective by the team members.