Abstract: This study investigated 62 virtual teams, distinguished between identified mental model and distributed mental model, and tested the relationship among team characteristics, shared mental model and virtual team effectiveness using hierarchical linear modeling. Results demonstrated that two kind of shared mental model were positively related to team effectiveness; time variable would weaken the positive relationship between identified shared mental model and task performance, and enhance the effect of distributed shared mental model on task effectiveness; virtual team size would affect the relationship between shared mental model and cooperative effectiveness, team size could enhance the effect of identified mental model on cooperative effectiveness, but weaken the relationship between distributed mental model and cooperative effectiveness

Key words: virtual team, shared mental model, hierarchical linear modeling