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.
Nader
Ale Ebrahim holds a PhD degree in Technology Management from the Department of
Engineering Design and Manufacture, Faculty of Engineering, University of
Malaya. He holds a Master of Science in the Mechanical Engineering from the
University of Tehran with distinguished honors. He also has over 19 years of
experience in the establishment of the R&D departments in different
companies, heading projects as the project director and project coordinator and
implementing knowledge based system in the R&D department. His current
research interest focuses on E-skills, Research Tools, Bibliometrics and
managing virtual NPD teams in SMEs’ R&D centers. His papers/articles have
published and presented in the several journals and conferences.
Virtual teams
small and medium enterprises
literature review
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Users
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