Virtual organization is a man-machine integrated organization supported by information technology, which is different from traditional organization. It is characterized by relying on modern communication technology, information storage technology and machine intelligence products to realize the traditional organizational structure, functions and goals. Formally, there is no fixed geographical space and no time limit. Members of the organization achieve consistent goals in the team through high self-discipline and high value orientation. At present, there are two foreign organizations specializing in the study of virtual enterprise theory: the Agile Forum in the United States and the European Agile Forum in the United Kingdom. Agility Forums evolved from1994 "Research on 20th Century Manufacturing Enterprises" project group, mainly engaged in theoretical research and dissemination of agile virtual enterprises and strategic consultation of virtual business practices. The European Agile Forum is organized by British strategic consultant Paul? t？ Kidd set up a virtual organization to study agile enterprises in Cheshire on 1995, which mainly tracks and studies international trends in this field and provides ideas, methods and tools for agile engineering in industry. In 1993, john boyne described virtual enterprise as an alliance between enterprise partners, which is a temporary alliance of independent enterprises (such as suppliers, customers and even competitors) connected by information technology. These enterprises contribute their core competence to the alliance in the fields of design, manufacturing and distribution, and realize skill sharing and cost sharing. Its purpose is to build the world-class competitiveness of a specific product or service and seize the rapidly changing market opportunities. It has neither an office center nor an organization chart, and may still be an organization without hierarchy and vertical integration.
On the virtual organization platform, innovative collaboration among enterprises can realize complementary advantages and risk sharing. Under the network environment, enterprises organize production and R&D in the form of virtual organization, which can adapt to the situation of global competition, better meet the changing needs of consumers and make enterprises develop rapidly.