Research in management, strategy, and international business increasingly highlights the role of people competencies, and cultural values as drivers of competitive advantage. Intercultural competence (IC) at the individual level has long been recognized as crucial for preventing crises, failures, and inefficiencies, but the complexity of work nowadays calls for team competencies: an interculturally competent individual cannot be a hero anymore. Understanding the collective intelligence arising from the cultural intelligence of individual team members through their interactions would allow us to answer the question: what makes a team culturally intelligent? Two main reasons explain the shift to Collective Intercultural Competence (CIC): (1) The process of learning about intercultural issues begins in global teams through conflict, reflection, and change; (2) "Dream teams," i.e. teams with developed CIC can achieve goals that individual members could not accomplish alone, as CIC is not simply the aggregate of individual learning within an organization, but the result of the effective articulation of competences over time.

The literature offers two definitions of CIC: (1) "the ability of the group to achieve its objectives effectively through social interaction, intercultural communication, and efficient articulation of cultural differences, resulting from a process of group learning within a multicultural context"; (2) "an emergent state that involves a shared understanding about what the team knows and how it can and should function with regard to the cultural aspects of its members and its environment". CIC develops through repeated interactions among team members in multicultural settings and through shared learning processes. The authors agree that: (1) CIC relies on team learning; (2) CIC is structured at the level of interpersonal interactions; (3) CIC is a dynamic and evolving team-level construct. Nevertheless, due to lack of empirical studies on the topic, a gap remains in the international management literature regarding the components, emergence, development, and measurement of CIC, both in face-to-face interactions and in virtual teamwork.

Potential topics

• Emergence and Development of Collective Intercultural Competence
• Micro–Macro and Multilevel Perspectives on CIC
• CIC as a Strategic Capability
• Collective Intercultural Competence in Virtual and Hybrid Teams
• Conceptualization, Measurement, and Methodological Innovations

Timeline

• March 16, 2026: Opening date for manuscripts submissions
• November 16, 2026: Closing date for manuscripts submission