Virtual R&D Teams: A Potential Growth of Education-Industry Collaboration
Nader Ale Ebrahim
University of Malaya - Department of Engineering Design and Manufacture, Faculty of Engineering
Shamsuddin Ahmed
University of Malaya (UM)
Salwa Hanim Abdul Rashid
University of Malaya (UM) - Department of Engineering Design and Manufacture
Zahari Taha
University Malaysia Pahang - Department of Manufacturing Engineering
December 8, 2010
2nd International Congress on Engineering Education (ICEED) 2010
Abstract:
In this paper, we present our more than two years research experiences on virtual R&D teams in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and draws conclusions, giving special attention to the structure of virtual teams required to support education-industry collaboration. We report the relevant results of an online survey study. The online questionnaire was emailed by using a simple random sampling method to 947 manufacturing SMEs. The findings of this study show that SMEs in Malaysia and Iran are willing to use virtual teams for collaboration and the platform for industry-education collaboration is ready and distance between team members or differences in time zones, are not barriers to industry-education collaborations.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 4
Keywords: Collaboration, Virtual Teams, SMEs, Education
JEL Classification: Q32, Q31, M11, L15, O1, O32, O4, O31, Z, N6, M2
Accepted Paper Series
Date posted: December 19, 2010
Suggested Citation
Virtual R&D Teams: A Potential Growth of Education-Industry Collaboration by Nader Ale Ebrahim, Shamsuddin Ahmed, Salwa Hanim Abdul Rashid, Zahari Taha :: SSRN