The role of collaborative working environments in enabling global businesses

The objective of this paper, based on early results of the New Global study, is to explore how globalisation of markets and industries affects the way companies are operating and collaborating, and to investigate the opportunities which global networking and global collaborative working opens up for market players including Europe´s large number of SMEs. A core focus is on how ICT-enabled collaborative working environments (CWE) enable global operations and working. Based on an investigation of current trends and developments, this paper explores various types of collaboration settings in which CWEs enable new forms of global collaboration in teams, networks and communities. Initial results of case studies are presented to identify policies and strategies which could be applied to promote global collaboration of European companies.