ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. EXPLORING VIRTUAL TEAM ADOPTION IN THE COVID-19 ERA

The lockdown triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic forced organizations to cope with relevant economic costs. Alongside generating huge financial burdens, the pandemic fostered the adoption of new routines and technologies to dynamically respond to these threats by making use of all possible organizational resources to survive the crisis and its consequences on organizational processes. Adopting Virtual Teams (VTs), SMEs leverage digital technologies (DTs) to promote human resource capital and to enhance organizational resilience increasing their ability to overcome current challenges pivoting on human-machine binomial. The study adopts an in-depth qualitative approach. A combination of data and interviews of n.9 senior managers from three different SMEs operating in Campania, Southern Italy, was accomplished. Research findings offer various suggestions for a balanced implementation of VT innovation among SMEs. Firstly, it is still unclear whether the forced VT adoption in such a limited timeline has affected or not both VT performance and members personal sphere. Secondly, constructs emerged from this study can nourish the debate on VT, by querying the literature to confirm or disconfirm them for an empirical assessment. This contribution has emphasized the lack of studies on the impact of VTs in crisis contexts, and it configure itself as a checkpoint from which starting a future research agenda development.