@misc{cogprints7804, volume = {4}, number = {13}, month = {December}, author = {Nader Ale Ebrahim and S. Ahmed and Zahari Taha}, title = {Virtual R\&D teams in small and medium enterprises: a literature review}, publisher = {Academic Journals}, year = {2009}, journal = {Scientific Research and Essays}, pages = {1575--1590}, keywords = {Virtual teams, small and medium enterprises, literature review}, url = {http://cogprints.org/7804/}, 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.} }