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

Scientific Research and Essays Vol. 4 (13), pp. 1575–1590, December 2009
ISSN 1992- 2248© 2009 Academic Journals

Review

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

Nader Ale Ebrahim*, Shamsuddin Ahmed and Zahari Taha

Department of Engineering Design and Manufacture, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Malaysia.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: aleebrahim@perdana.um.edu.my.

Accepted 21 December, 2009.

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 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.

Key words: Virtual teams, small and medium enterprises, literature review.

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