Npd in Yasni Exposé of Nader Ale Ebrahim

The effectiveness of virtual R&D teams in SMEs: experiences of Malaysian SMEs Ale Ebrahim, N.; Abdul Rashid, S.H.; Ahmed, S.; Taha, Z. (2011) The effectiveness of virtual R&D teams in SMEs: experiences of Malaysian SMEs. Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, 10 (2). pp. 109-114. ISSN 1598-7248 Abstract The number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially those involved with research and development (R&D) programs and employed virtual teams to create the greatest competitive advantage from limited labor are increasing. Global and localized virtual R&D teams are believed to have high potential for the growth of SMEs. Due to the fast-growing complexity of new products coupled with new emerging opportunities of virtual teams, a collaborative approach is believed to be the future trend. This research explores the effectiveness of virtuality in SMEs’ virtual R&D teams. Online questionnaires were emailed to Malaysian manufacturing SMEs and 74 usable questionnaires were received, representing a 20.8 percent return rate. In order to avoid biases which may result from pre-suggested answers, a series of open-ended questions were retrieved from the experts. This study was focused on analyzing an open-ended question, whereby four main themes were extracted from the experts’ recommendations regarding the effectiveness of virtual teams for the growth and performance of SMEs. The findings of this study would be useful to product design managers of SMEs in order to realize the key advantages and significance of virtual R&D teams during the new product development (NPD) process. This in turn, leads to increased effectiveness in new product development's procedure.

1. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2008). Concurrent Collaboration in Research and Development. In: National Conference on Design and Concurrent Engineering (DECON) 2008, 28 to 29 October 2008 Melaka, Malaysia. 2. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2008). Dealing with Virtual R&D Teams in New Product Development. In: The 9th Asia Pacific Industrial Engineering & Management Systems Conference and the 11th Asia Pacific Regional Meeting of the International Foundation for Production Research, 3 - 5 December 2008 Nusa Dua, Bali - Indonesia. Printed in Bandung, INDONESIA, by Department of Industrial Engineering Institut Teknologi Bandung: Department of Industrial Engineering Institut Teknologi Bandung, 795-806. 3. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2008). Literature, Principle and the basics of Network Value Creation in R&D: The relationship with economy. In: Seventh conference of Industries and Mines R&D Centers- R&D and Network Value Creation, 29-30 June 2008 IRIB Int'l. Conference Center, Tehran, Iran. 4. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2008). New Product Development in Virtual Environment. In: LI-HUA, R., EGBU, C., ZHAO, Z. & LU, L., eds. 2008 International Conference on Technology Management and Innovation in China: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century, 21st – 23rd October, 2008 2008 UIBE, Beijing, China. CAMOT and MOTSC, UIBE, 203 - 218. 5. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2008). R&D Networking and value Creation in SMEs R&D Networking and value Creation in SMEs. In: Seventh conference of Industries and Mines R&D Centers- R&D and Network Value Creation, 29-30 June 2008 IRIB Int'l. Conference Center, Tehran, Iran. 6. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2008). Virtual Environments Innovation and R&D Activities: Management Challenges. In: Proceedings of the International Graduate on Engineering and Science (IGCES'08), 23 - 24 December 2008 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. 116. 7. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2008). Virtual R&D Teams for NPD in SMEs: Past, Present and Future Trend. In: APCMOTTE2008 (Asia pacific Conference on Management of Technology and Technology Entrepreneurship) 29-30, October 2008 Melaka ,Malaysia. 8. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2008). Virtual R&D Teams: a Sustainable Infrastructure for Promoting SMEs. In: 2nd Engineering Conference (EnCon 2008), 18-19, December 2008 Crowne Plaza Riverside Hotel, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia 217-223. 9. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2009). SMEs: ERP or Virtual Collaboration Teams. In: First Enterprise Resource Planning conference, January 27-28 Tehran, Iran. 1-12. 10. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2009). A Conceptual Model of Virtual Product Development Process. In: 2nd Seminar on Engineering and Information Technology, (SEIT 2009), 8th - 9th July 2009 Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. 191-196. 11. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2009). SMEs and Virtual R&D Teams: A Motive Channel for Relationship between SMEs. In: IBRAHIM, F., CHOW, C.-O. & MEKHILEF, S., eds. The International Conference for Technical Postgraduates (TECHPOS 2009), 14-15 December 2009 The Legend Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 1-7. 12. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2009). Virtual R&D Teams: Innovation and Technology Facilitator In: Engineering Education in 2025, 11-12 May,2009 School of Engineering and Technology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. University of Tehran, 1-14. 13. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2009). Virtual Teams and Management Challenges. In: 1st Executive MBA Conference 2009, 18-19, May, 2009 Tehran, Iran. 14. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2009). Virtual Teams for NPD – an Innovative Experience for R&D Engineers. In: International Conference on Advances in Mechanical Engineering 2009, 24-25, June, 2009 Concorde Hotel, Shah Alam, Malaysia. University Publication Centre (UPENA), UiTM 2009, 1036-1045. 15. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2009). Virtuality, innovation and R&D activities. In: HOON, T. B. & GALEA, S. R., eds. 14th International Conference on Thinking (2009 Malaysia) -Theme "Thinking Minds: Nurturing the Design of a Better Future", 22-26 June 2009 Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Universiti Putra Malaysia, 515-529. 16. ALE EBRAHIM, N., SHAFIA, M. A. & TAHBAZ TAVAKOLI, H. (2009). Virtual R&D team: Technology Transfer Facilitator. In: IAMOT 2009 -The 18th International Conference on Management of Technology, April 5-9 2009 Orlando, Florida, USA. 10. 17. SHAFIA, M. A., ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2009). Consideration of the virtual team work and disabled citizens, as promising opportunity providers for the e government infrastructure's formation. In: The Second Conference on Electronic City (e-city 2009), 24-25, May, 2009 Tehran, Iran. 959-966. 18. SHAFIA, M. A., ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2009). Innovation Process is Facilitated in Virtual Environment of R&D Teams. In: International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (EDULEARN09), 6th-8th July 2009 Barcelona, Spain. 2157-2166. 19. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2010). Benefits and Pitfalls of Virtual R&D Teams: An Empirical Study. In: 6th International Communication & Information Technology Management Conference (ICTM 2010) February. 23-24, 2010 Tehran, Iran. 20. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S. & TAHA, Z. (2010). Envisages of New Product Developments in Small and Medium Enterprises through Virtual Team. In: International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM2010) January. 9-10, 2010 Dhaka, Bangladesh. 21. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S., ABDUL RASHID, S. H. & TAHA, Z. (2010). Virtual Teams: A New Opportunity to Develop a Business. In: International Conference on Entrepreneurship Across Boundaries, 2010 Section For Co-curricular Courses, External Faculty Electives and TITAS, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 1-5. 22. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S., ABDUL RASHID, S. H. & TAHA, Z. (2010). The Effectiveness of Virtual R&D Teams in SMEs: Experiences of Malaysian SMEs. In: The 11th Asia Pacific Industrial Engineering and Management Systems Conference (APIEMS 2010), 7 – 10 December 2010, Melaka, Malaysia. 1-6. 23. ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S., RASHID, S. H. A. & TAHA, Z. (2010). Virtual R&D Teams: A potential growth of education-industry collaboration. In: 2010 2nd International Congress on Engineering Education (ICEED 2010), 8th - 9th December Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 7-9.

Critical Factors for New Product Developments in SMEs Virtual Team African Journal of Business Management Vol. 4(11), pp. 2247-2257, 4 September, 2010 Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are considered as an engine for economic growth all over the world and especially for developing countries. During the past decade, new product development (NPD) has increasingly been recognized as a critical factor in ensuring the continued survival of SMEs. On the other hand, the rapid rate of market and technological changes has accelerated in the past decade, so this turbulent environment requires new methods and techniques to bring successful new products to the marketplace. Virtual team can be a solution to answer the requested demand. However, literature have shown no significant differences between traditional NPD and virtual NPD in general, whereas NPD in SME’s virtual team has not been systematically investigated in developing countries. This paper aims to bridge this gap by first reviewing the NPD and its relationship with virtuality and then identifies the critical factors of NPD in virtual teams. The statistical method was utilized to perform the required analysis of data from the survey. The results were achieved through factor analysis at the perspective of NPD in some Malaysian and Iranian manufacturing firms (N = 191). The 20 new product development factors were grouped into five higher level constructs. It gives valuable insight and guidelines, which hopefully will help managers of firms in developing countries to consider the main factors in NPD.

The number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially those involved with research and development (R&D) programs and employed virtual teams to create the greatest competitive advantage from limited labor are increasing. Global and localized virtual R&D teams are believed to have a high potential for SMEs growth. Due to the fast growing complexity of the new product, coupled with new emerging opportunities of virtual teams, a collaborative approach is believed to be the future trend. This research explores the effectiveness of virtuality in SMEs virtual R&D teams. An online questionnaire emailed to Malaysian manufacturing SMEs and 74 usable questionnaires were received, representing a 20.8 percent return rate. To avoid the bias that may result from pre-suggested answer, a series of open-ended questions asked from expertise. This study based on analyzing an open-ended question; extract four main themes among expertise recommendations on the effectiveness of virtual teams for SMEs growth and performance. These are suitable for SMEs new product design manager to realize the key advantage and importance of virtual R&D teams in the process of NPD, which lead to increase the effectiveness of the new product's procedure. # ALE EBRAHIM, N., AHMED, S., ABDUL RASHID, S. H. & TAHA, Z. (2010). The Effectiveness of Virtual R&D Teams in SMEs: Experiences of Malaysian SMEs. In: The 11th Asia Pacific Industrial Engineering and Management Systems Conference (APIEMS 2010), 7 – 10 December 2010, Melaka, Malaysia. 1-6.

Purpose - The literature on the topic has evolved exponentially since eight years ago. Relaying on a review of studies published in recent years, this article proposes and discusses a framework which incorporates a set of virtual teams involved in a new product development initiative. Design/methodology/approach – A range of academic and practitioner literature related to virtual teams and virtual new product development is reviewed. What is Virtual New Product Development and what determines its development in manufacturing firms? These two questions are answered. Findings - The decision to use a virtual team is often a necessity and not a choice; being ‘virtual’ is in most cases not an alternative but a requirement. Enterprise may benefit from building and maintain the virtual teams in a number of ways such as achieving higher quality, accessing and capturing dispersed knowledge and skills regarding the multifunctional and multi-use components and modules, electronically unite experts in highly specialized fields, collaborating more productivity at a distance, achieving tight schedules and start quickly, reducing travel time and cost, enabling the recruitment of talented employees, builds diverse teams, promoting proactive employment and finally reducing discrimination in enterprises. Originality/value - The results of an academic literature review were employed to the literature so far has not paid adequate attention to the virtual team activities in NPD. The results highlight several avenues which would help managers and policy makers to better foster cyber new product development and designers to better channel of their efforts in the design and manufacturing domain.

This paper provides a comprehensive review on different aspects of virtual teams based on authentic and reputed publications. The purpose of the state-of-the-art literature review is to provide an overview of what is known about the structure and dynamics of R&D collaboration in SMEs. SMEs are the backbone of the world business. The focus of the investigation is on virtual R&D teams in SMEs. After providing a definition and importance of virtual teams, research and development (R&D), small and medium enterprises (SME) and new product development (NPD), the relationship between them will be examined. This paper seeks to address some of the gaps in the existing extensive literature on virtual teams as a general and virtual R&D teams in new product development in SMEs, as a concentrate topic. Covering previous literatures, the research gaps derive and propose the way of further studies and recommend are provided. Along extending future research some managerial implication will be discussed. It is argued that the preparation for virtual R&D team working should be given consideration in the management of R&D new product development projects.

New interaction tools such as internet allows companies to gain valuable input from research and development (R&D) engineers via virtual teams. Consequently engineers also get more expertise in diminutive timeframes. Virtual R&D teams present the key impetus to the technology acquisition process. The present knowledge-economy era is characterized by short product life-cycles. Virtual R&D teams may reduce time-to-market, make available a large pool of new product know-how and provide greater flexibilities which are the key success factors in a competitive market. This comprehensive review contains almost 100 references and covers the recent literature with emphasis on topic. The review has focused on authentic and reputed publications and extracts the results. This article presents the type of virtual teams and their main features and explains how virtual R&D team can play a prominent role in developing new products. The article is evolved future study guideline and also illustrates how to apply virtual interaction tools and integrate engineers into the innovation process. Management of virtual R&D teams in new product development (NPD) processes in an innovative, effective and efficient is of a high importance, but the issue has been poorly addressed in the previous studies. Findings show that virtual R&D team provides valuable input for new product development and R&D engineers are able to attain virtual experience.

New product development (NPD) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) virtual team has not been systematically investigated in developing countries. Literatures have shown no significant differences between traditional NPD and virtual NPD in general. New product development especially for SMEs virtual team are somewhat lacking in the literature and constitute a research gap. This paper aims to bridge this gap. This study first reviews the NPD and its relationship with virtuality and then identifies the critical factors in definition of NPD in SMEs virtual team. The statistical method was utilized to perform the required analysis of the data from survey. The results are achieved through factor analysis at the perspective of NPD in some of Malaysian and Iranian manufacturing firms. The 20 new product development factors were grouped into five higher level constructs. It gives valuable insight and guidelines which hopefully will help managers of firms in developing countries to consider the main factors in NPD.

New interaction tools such as internet allow companies to gain valuable input from research and development (R&D) engineers via virtual teams. Consequently, engineers also get more expertise in diminutive time frames. Virtual R&D teams present the key impetus to the technology acquisition process. The present knowledge-economy era is characterized by short product life-cycles. Virtual R&D teams may reduce time-to-market, make available a large pool of new product know-how and provide greater flexibilities, which are the key success factors in a competitive market. This comprehensive review contains almost 100 references and covers the recent literature with emphasis on the topic. The review has focused on authentic and reputed publications and extracts the results. This article presents the type of virtual teams and their main features and explains how virtual R&D team can play a prominent role in developing new products. The article is evolved future study guideline and also illustrates how to apply virtual interaction tools and integrate engineers into the innovation process. Management of virtual R&D teams in new product development (NPD) processes in an innovative, effective and efficient is of a high importance, but the issue has been poorly addressed in the previous studies. Findings show that virtual R&D team provides valuable input for new product development and R&D engineers are able to attain virtual experience.

In today’s dynamic marketplace, manufacturing companies are under strong pressure to introduce new products for long-term survival with their competitors. Nevertheless, every company cannot cope up progressively or immediately with the market requirements due to knowledge dynamics being experienced in the competitive milieu. Increased competition and reduced product life cycles put force upon companies to develop new products faster. In response to these pressing needs, there should be some new approach compatible in flexible circumstances. This paper presents a solution based on the popular Stage-Gate system, which is closely linked with virtual team approach. Virtual teams can provide a platform to advance the knowledge-base in a company and thus to reduce time-to-market. This article introduces conceptual product development architecture under a virtual team umbrella. The paper describes all the major aspects of new product development (NPD), NPD process and its relationship with virtual teams, Stage-Gate system finally presents a modified Stage-Gate system to cope up with the changing needs. It also provides the guidelines for the successful implementation of virtual teams in new product development.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are indeed the engines of global economic growth. Their continued growth is a major subject for the economy and employment of any country. Towards that end, virtual research and development (R&D) could be a viable option to sustain and ease the operations of SMEs. However, literature shows there has not been a great deal of research into the diverse characteristic of virtual R&D teams in SMEs. This article provides a comprehensive literature review on different aspects of virtual R&D teams collected from the reputed publications. The purpose of the literature review is to provide an outline on the structure and dynamics of R&D collaboration in SMEs. Specifying the rationale and relevance of virtual teams, the relationship between virtual R&D team for SMEs and new product development (NPD) has been examined. It concludes with identifying the gaps and feebleness in the existing literatures and calls for future research in this area. It is argued to form of virtual R&D team deserves consideration at top level management for venturing into the new product development within SMEs.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are considered as an engine for economic growth all over the world and especially for developing countries. During the past decade, new product development (NPD) has increasingly been recognized as a critical factor in ensuring the continued survival of SMEs. On the other hand, the rapid rate of market and technological changes has accelerated in the past decade, so this turbulent environment requires new methods and techniques to bring successful new products to the marketplace. Virtual team can be a solution to answer the requested demand. However, literature have shown no significant differences between traditional NPD and virtual NPD in general, whereas NPD in SME’s virtual team has not been systematically investigated in developing countries. This paper aims to bridge this gap by first reviewing the NPD and its relationship with virtuality and then identifies the critical factors of NPD in virtual teams. The statistical method was utilized to perform the required analysis of data from the survey. The results were achieved through factor analysis at the perspective of NPD in some Malaysian and Iranian manufacturing firms (N = 191). The 20 new product development factors were grouped into five higher level constructs. It gives valuable insight and guidelines, which hopefully will help managers of firms in developing countries to consider the main factors in NPD.

In today’s dynamic marketplace, companies are under strong pressure to introduce new products for long-term survival with their competitors. Besides, every company cannot cope up progressively or immediately with the market requirements due to knowledge dynamics being experienced in competitive milieu. Increased competition and reduced product life cycles put force upon companies to develop new products faster. In response to this pressing need there should be some new approach compatible in flexible circumstances. This paper presents a solution based on the Stage-Gate system, which is closely linked with virtual team approach. Virtual teams can provide a platform to advance the knowledge-base in a company and thus to reduce time-to-market. This article introduces conceptual product development architecture under a virtual-team umbrella. The paper describes all the major aspects of new product development (NPD), NPD process and its relationship with virtual team, Stage-Gate system and finally presents a modified Stage-Gate system. It also provides the guidelines for the successful implementation of virtual team in new products development.

Modified Stage-Gate: A Conceptual Model of Virtual Product Development Process African Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 1, No. 9, pp. 211-219, December 2009 In today’s dynamic marketplace, manufacturing companies are under strong pressure to introduce new products for long-term survival with their competitors. Nevertheless, every company cannot cope up progressively or immediately with the market requirements due to knowledge dynamics being experienced in the competitive milieu. Increased competition and reduced product life cycles put force upon companies to develop new products faster. In response to these pressing needs, there should be some new approach compatible in flexible circumstances. This paper presents a solution based on the popular Stage-Gate system, which is closely linked with virtual team approach. Virtual teams can provide a platform to advance the knowledge-base in a company and thus to reduce time-to-market. This article introduces conceptual product development architecture under a virtual team umbrella. The paper describes all the major aspects of new product development (NPD), NPD process and its relationship with virtual teams, Stage-Gate system finally presents a modified Stage-Gate system to cope up with the changing needs. It also provides the guidelines for the successful implementation of virtual teams in new product development.  

Virtual Teams for New Product Development: An Innovative Experience for R&D Engineers European Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 109-123, October 2009 New interaction tools such as internet allow companies to gain valuable input from research and development (R&D) engineers via virtual teams. Consequently, engineers also get more expertise in diminutive time frames. Virtual R&D teams present the key impetus to the technology acquisition process. The present knowledge-economy era is characterized by short product life-cycles. Virtual R&D teams may reduce time-to-market, make available a large pool of new product know-how and provide greater flexibilities, which are the key success factors in a competitive market. This comprehensive review contains almost 100 references and covers the recent literature with emphasis on the topic. The review has focused on authentic and reputed publications and extracts the results. This article presents the type of virtual teams and their main features and explains how virtual R&D team can play a prominent role in developing new products. The article is evolved future study guideline and also illustrates how to apply virtual interaction tools and integrate engineers into the innovation process. Management of virtual R&D teams in new product development (NPD) processes in an innovative, effective and efficient is of a high importance, but the issue has been poorly addressed in the previous studies. Findings show that virtual R&D team provides valuable input for new product development and R&D engineers are able to attain virtual experience.  

SMEs; Virtual research and development (R&D) teams and new product development: A literature review International Journal of the Physical Sciences Vol. 5(7), pp. 916–930, July 2010 Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are indeed the engines of global economic growth. Their continued growth is a major subject for the economy and employment of any country. Towards that end, virtual research and development (R&D) could be a viable option to sustain and ease the operations of SMEs. However, literature shows there has not been a great deal of research into the diverse characteristic of virtual R&D teams in SMEs. This article provides a comprehensive literature review on different aspects of virtual R&D teams collected from the reputed publications. The purpose of the literature review is to provide an outline on the structure and dynamics of R&D collaboration in SMEs. Specifying the rationale and relevance of virtual teams, the relationship between virtual R&D team for SMEs and new product development (NPD) has been examined. It concludes with identifying the gaps and feebleness in the existing literature and calls for future research in this area. It is argued to form of virtual R&D team deserves consideration at top level management for venturing into the new product development within SMEs.  

Critical Factors for New Product Developments in SMEs Virtual Team African Journal of Business Management Vol. 4(11), pp. 2247-2257, 4 September, 2010 Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are considered as an engine for economic growth all over the world and especially for developing countries. During the past decade, new product development (NPD) has increasingly been recognized as a critical factor in ensuring the continued survival of SMEs. On the other hand, the rapid rate of market and technological changes has accelerated in the past decade, so this turbulent environment requires new methods and techniques to bring successful new products to the marketplace. Virtual team can be a solution to answer the requested demand. However, literature have shown no significant differences between traditional NPD and virtual NPD in general, whereas NPD in SME’s virtual team has not been systematically investigated in developing countries. This paper aims to bridge this gap by first reviewing the NPD and its relationship with virtuality and then identifies the critical factors of NPD in virtual teams. The statistical method was utilized to perform the required analysis of data from the survey. The results were achieved through factor analysis at the perspective of NPD in some Malaysian and Iranian manufacturing firms (N = 191). The 20 new product development factors were grouped into five higher level constructs. It gives valuable insight and guidelines, which hopefully will help managers of firms in developing countries to consider the main factors in NPD.  

Doctoral Degree (PhD), Nader Ale Ebrahim, Virtual Technology Management for NPD, 2008/2009, Ongoing. Doctoral Degree (PhD), Ali Alimordi, Field of study: ...

Nader Ale Ebrahim, Shamsuddin Ahmed, Zahari Taha. Social Science Research Network Working Paper Series (10 September 2010). Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are indeed the engines of global economic growth. Their continued growth is a major subject for the economy and employment of any country. Towards that end, virtual research and development (R&D) could be a viable option to sustain and ease the operations of SMEs. However, literature shows there has not been a great deal of research into the diverse characteristic of virtual R&D teams in SMEs. This article provides a comprehensive literature review on different aspects of virtual R&D teams collected from the reputed publications. The purpose of the literature review is to provide an outline on the structure and dynamics of R&D collaboration in SMEs. Specifying the rationale and relevance of virtual teams, the relationship between virtual R&D team for SMEs and new product development (NPD) has been examined. It concludes with identifying the gaps and feebleness in the existing literatures and calls for future research in this area. It is argued to form of virtual R&D team deserves consideration at top level management for venturing into the new product development within SMEs. papers nader journal ebrahims ale virtual teams small rd product new medium enterprises development and

Nader Ale Ebrahim, Shamsuddin Ahmed, Zahari Taha. Social Science Research Network Working Paper Series (07 November 2009). New interaction tools such as internet allow companies to gain valuable input from research and development (R&D) engineers via virtual teams. Consequently, engineers also get more expertise in diminutive time frames. Virtual R&D teams present the key impetus to the technology acquisition process. The present knowledge-economy era is characterized by short product life-cycles. Virtual R&D teams may reduce time-to-market, make available a large pool of new product know-how and provide greater flexibilities, which are the key success factors in a competitive market. This comprehensive review contains almost 100 references and covers the recent literature with emphasis on the topic. The review has focused on authentic and reputed publications and extracts the results. This article presents the type of virtual teams and their main features and explains how virtual R&D team can play a prominent role in developing new products. The article is evolved future study guideline and also illustrates how to apply virtual interaction tools and integrate engineers into the innovation process. Management of virtual R&D teams in new product development (NPD) processes in an innovative, effective and efficient is of a high importance, but the issue has been poorly addressed in the previous studies. Findings show that virtual R&D team provides valuable input for new product development and R&D engineers are able to attain virtual experience. papers nader journal ebrahims ale virtual teams rd product new experience engineers development