Collaboration tools support global software engineering (GSE) by providing relevant information and work context to developers, essentially seeking to provide a local context for developers working globally. Although many collaborative tools have been developed, we have insufficient knowledge of how they are used in practice. In this paper, we review the recent empirical studies on collaboration tools for GSE. Then we theorize a conceptual framework that aims to explain how the unique contextual dimensions of GSE (e.g. culture diversity and adaptation, etc.) influence practitioners' attitudes toward, and usage of, the tools. The conceptual framework will guide our future empirical studies, and it will be refined by the empirical evidence collected in these studies.
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