ABSTRACT
Introduction Today’s managers are confronted with a continuously changing competitive environment. The reasons for this include rapid technological change, globalization of markets and trends such as the regained interest in the revitalization of customer service (Ives and Mason, 1990) and mass customization (Davis, 1987; Pine, 1993). The customization of customer preferences requires organizations to increase their product and service variety. In the quest for new organizational forms that incorporate appropriate levels of flexibility to offer a large variety of products and services – while keeping costs and lead times low – the virtual organization has emerged.
