Virtual R&D teams in small and medium enterprises: a literature review

Journal article | Zeitschriftenartikel

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the driving engine behind economic growth. While SMEs play a critical role in generating employment and supporting trade, they face numerous challenges, the prominent among them are the need to respond to fasting time-to-market, low-cost and rapid solutions to complex organizational problems. Towards that end, research and development (R & D) aspect deserves particular attention to promote and facilitate the operations of SMEs. Virtual R & D team could be a viable option. However, literature shows that virtual R & D teaming in SMEs is still at its infancy. This article provides a comprehensive literature review on different aspects of virtual R & D teams collected from the reputed publications. The purpose of the state-of-the-art literature review is to provide an overview on the structure and dynamics of R & D collaboration in SMEs. Specifying the foundation and importance of virtual teams, the relationship between virtual R & D team and SMEs has been examined. It concludes with the identification of the gaps in the existing literatures and calls for future research. It is argued that setting-up an infrastructure for virtual R & D team in SMEs still requires a large amount of engineering efforts and deserves consideration at top level management.

Object Details

• Extent: Seite(n): 1575–1590
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Status: Veröffentlichungsversion; begutachtet

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Scientific Research and Essays, 4(13)

Classification and Topics

• Subject: Wirtschaft ; Technik, Technologie ; Publizistische Medien, Journalismus,Verlagswesen ; Technikfolgenabschätzung ; Management ; interaktive, elektronische Medien ; Effizienz ; Mittelbetrieb ; neue Technologie ; computervermittelte Kommunikation ; Forschung und Entwicklung ; virtuelles Unternehmen ; Kooperation ; Kleinbetrieb ; Team

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Ale Ebrahim, Nader ; Ahmed, Shamsuddin ; Taha, Zahari
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (when): 2009

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-233020
• Rights: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Bibliothek Köln
• Last update: 21.06.2024, 4:27 PM CEST