Contingency Factors of Virtual Organizations’ Emergence

Business organizations are permanently influenced by contingency factors which generate profound changes in their emergence, structures and forms. Globalization, technological progress, and changes in society are foundations of networked organization emergence. In the actual economic, social and technological contexts, progress assumes interdependence of many contingency factors that are in mutual interaction. The organizations integration in virtual organizations generates positive effects through which organizations become competitive and cope with the dynamics and turbulence of the business environment. Progress in areas such as networks of communications, telecommunications, information technology and social changes are preconditions for the emergence of the knowledge-based society and of the interconnected society in which new structures emerge that allow business activities and processes to unfold in a collaborative manner. The integration of organizations, especially of small and medium-sized enterprises, into networks of organizations, has become an important goal in the current economic environment, as the organizations are striving to become more competitive, to build skills and have access to know-how. To cope with changes and complexity of business sectors, the organizations seek to become more competitive by developing new business models, strategies and governance principles, processes, internal structures based on new organizational capabilities and resources. The identification and analysis of contingency factors of the emergence of virtual organizations are issues that can highlight the distinctive features of virtual organizations compared to other organizational forms, but also the differences between them and other network-type structures.