Organizations introduce virtual assistants (VAs) to support employees with work-related tasks. VAs can increase the success of teamwork and thus become an integral part of the daily work life. However, the effect of VAs on virtual teams remains unclear. While social identity theory describes the identification of employees with team members and the continued existence of a group identity, the concept of the extended self refers to the incorporation of possessions into one’s sense of self. This raises the question of which approach applies to VAs as teammates. The article extends the IS literature by examining the impact of VAs on individuals and teams and updates the knowledge on social identity and the extended self by deploying VAs in a collaborative setting. Using a laboratory experiment with N = 50, two groups were compared in solving a task, where one group was assisted by a VA, while the other was supported by a person. Results highlight that employees who identify VAs as part of their extended self are more likely to identify with team members and vice versa. The two aspects are thus combined into the proposed construct of virtually extended identification explaining the relationships of collaboration with VAs. This study contributes to the understanding on the influence of the extended self and social identity on collaboration with VAs. Practitioners are able to assess how VAs improve collaboration and teamwork in mixed teams in organizations.

中文翻译：

---

了解与虚拟助手的合作——社会身份和扩展自我的作用

组织引入虚拟助理 (VA) 来支持员工完成与工作相关的任务。VA 可以提高团队合作的成功率，从而成为日常工作生活中不可或缺的一部分。然而，VA 对虚拟团队的影响仍不清楚。虽然社会认同理论描述了员工与团队成员的认同以及群体认同的持续存在，但扩展自我的概念是指将所有物纳入自我意识。这就提出了哪种方法适用于作为队友的 VA 的问题。本文通过检查 VA 对个人和团队的影响扩展了 IS 文献，并通过在协作环境中部署 VA 更新了关于社会身份和扩展自我的知识。使用 N = 50 的实验室实验，比较两组解决任务的能力，其中一组由 VA 协助，而另一组由一个人支持。结果表明，将 VA 视为扩展自我的一部分的员工更有可能认同团队成员，反之亦然。因此，这两个方面被结合到拟议的虚拟扩展识别结构中，解释了与 VA 的合作关系。本研究有助于理解扩展的自我和社会身份对与 VA 合作的影响。从业者能够评估 VA 如何改善组织中混合团队的协作和团队合作。因此，这两个方面被结合到拟议的虚拟扩展识别结构中，解释了与 VA 的合作关系。本研究有助于理解扩展的自我和社会身份对与 VA 合作的影响。从业者能够评估 VA 如何改善组织中混合团队的协作和团队合作。因此，这两个方面被结合到拟议的虚拟扩展识别结构中，解释了与 VA 的合作关系。本研究有助于理解扩展的自我和社会身份对与 VA 合作的影响。从业者能够评估 VA 如何改善组织中混合团队的协作和团队合作。