Virtual teams: A literature review

In the competitive ma rke t , virtual teams represent a growing response to the need for fas ting time-to-ma rket, low-cos t and rapid solutions to complex organizational problems. Virtual teams enable organizations to pool the talents and expertise of employees and non-employees by eliminating time and space barriers . Nowadays companies are heavily inves tin g in v irt u a l team to enhance their performance and competitiveness . Despite virtual team growing prevalence, relatively little is known about this new form of team. Hence the s tudy offers an extens ive literature review with de fin itions o f virtual teams and a s tructured analys is of the present body of knowledge of virtual teams. Firs t, we dis tinguish virtual tea ms from conventional teams, different types of virtual teams to identify where current knowledge applies . Second, we dis t in g u ish what is needed for effective virtual team cons idering the people, process and technology point of view and underlying characteris tics of virtual teams and challenges the entail. Finally we have identified a n d e xt e n d e d 12 key factors that need to be cons idered, and describes a methodology focused on supporting virtual team working, with a new approach that has not been specifically addressed in the exis ting literature and some guide line for future research extracted.