X-panding the classroom: X-Culture offers global business experience and insights.

• Position: RESEARCH NORTH CAROLINA: UNC GREENSBORO

Managers worldwide battle this issue.

A team of capable people struggles, putting its project in jeopardy. The cause: One member isn't pulling his weight.

Some might call the person a slacker; among global virtual teams, the term is "free rider!'

How can a manager resolve the issue? Better yet, which strategy is field-tested and statistically proven as the best approach?

Dr. Vasyl Taras in UNC Greensboro's Bryan School of Business and Economics has the answer, thanks to the X-Culture project.

He launched the project in 2010 as a way to give his MBA students a taste of international business experience--before they plunge into the world of global commerce.

That experiment has turned into an international success.

Scattered about the globe, students work in virtual teams of seven. Their communication tools are email, Skype, Google Docs and Dropbox. They work across varied time zones, diverse cultures, preconceptions and prejudices.

Results produced by the student teams are so well respected that companies ranging from Louis Vuitton to Home Depot have come knocking, seeking X-Culture's expertise.

* A business practicum and tool for business

Pursuing global business opportunities creates special challenges. Working with a diverse team of colleagues around the world tests an individual's patience, stamina and preconceptions.

Textbooks and professors make this plain to students. But as every skydiver knows, there's a difference between studying the sport and leaping out of a plane.

"The whole idea behind X-Culture was that people would work with people from other cultures and would experience, in practice, what we are telling them in the classroom," Taras says.

Taras envisioned global virtual teams, each member from a different university and nation.

Taras reached out over the internet, seeking a few international partners to test his idea. The response was immediate and enthusiastic. Suddenly, he was coordinating a global virtual program from his office in the Bryan School.

Companies present real-life international business challenges to the teams. Students are evaluated on more than 100 performance dimenasions. Getting--and keeping--a place on a team is not simply a matter of signing up. Students must pass a readiness test. Teammates assess one another weekly to ensure everyone is contributing.

Companies receive well-researched, creative market-expansion strategies, while winning teams can earn cash prizes and even land consulting contracts and...