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

Nader Ale Ebrahim, Shamsuddin Ahmed and Zahari Taha
MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany
Abstract: 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 literature's 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.
Keywords:Virtual teams; small and medium enterprises; literature review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes:L6L17M12O32O1M11P42P23L15O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009, Revised 2009-10
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Published in Scientific Research and Essays 13.4(2009): pp. 1575-1590
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Working Paper: Virtual R & D teams in small and medium enterprises: A literature review (2009)
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Persistent link:http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:27045
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