Virtual Teams and Internationalisation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This chapter is dedicated to virtual teams and the internationalisation of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Its primary focus is on how virtual teams across national borders emerge through international business opportunity-focused actions and interactions of various teams in networks. Networks are to a certain extent "virtual" as they might comprise various factories spread all over the world at the same time; another organisational form, "virtual teams", has been recognised as widely used in connection to product development, lean production, etc. The influence of virtual team's behaviour and the attitude of the management have a critical role in a small firm since the decision is more likely to be made by one manager/founder. The organisation of small firms is informal; therefore, the owner or entrepreneur usually has the power to control the entire organisation. The chapter presents several case studies of internationalising newly founded SMEs located in the south-eastern Sweden with high level of involvement of virtual teams in them. The interviews with the SME founders were conducted just before the COVID-19 outbreak. Research findings show that the studied Swedish firms have a strong managerial motivation to internationalise via virtual teams.