Building Virtual Relationships in Distributed Organizational Environment

Abstract

Small and medium-size companies are increasingly competing globally by forming horizontal alliances. To support this process there is a growing need for formation of virtual teams across company boundaries that can jointly develop new products and processes. A review of previous research shows that, although virtual teams have been well defined as a concept, the key variables involved in the formation of inter-organisational teams and the managerial implications remain comparatively unknown. The chapter provides a process perspective for researching virtual team formation and interaction patterns. By combining cross-disciplinary theoretical approaches, the reported study offers a conceptual overview for collective teaming in virtual settings. The research findings so far confirm that virtual team formation and evolution follow specific development patterns, which can be described as cyclical self-energising processes.