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COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS IN INDUSTRY
- TRENDS AND FOUNDATIONS
Luis M. Camarinha-Matos
New University of Lisbon
cam@uninova.pt
Collaborative networks offer a high potential for survival and value creation in
enterprises under turbulent market conditions. Collaboration manifests in a
large variety of forms, including virtual organizations, virtual enterprises,
dynamic supply chains, professional virtual communities, etc. In order to
support preparedness of enterprises for participation in such dynamic
coalitions, breeding environments for virtual organizations are being
developed in many application sectors. A large body of empiric knowledge
related to collaborative networks is already available, but only recently the
research community started to focus on the consolidation of this knowledge
and building the foundations for a more sustainable development of the area.
The definition of reference models and the establishment of a scientific
discipline for collaborative networks are strong instruments in achieving this
purpose. In this paper a brief survey of the main characteristics of the area is
presented, current baseline is discussed, and future trends are pointed out.
1. INTRODUCTION
The implementation of collaborative processes has accelerated in recent years as a
consequence of both the new challenges posed to companies by the fast changing
market conditions and the new developments in the information and communication
technologies sector. In fact, a large variety of collaborative networks have emerged
during the last years as a result of the rapidly evolving challenges faced by business
entities and the society in general [3]. For instance, the reduction of commercial
barriers not only gave consumers wider access to goods, but also led to higher
demands for quality and diversity as well as a substantial increase in the competition
among suppliers and a decrease of the products’ life cycle. Therefore, highly
integrated and dynamic supply chains, extended and virtual enterprises, virtual
organizations, and professional virtual communities are just some manifestations of
this trend that are indeed enabled by the advances in the information and
communication technologies.
In this context, it became a common assumption that participation in a
collaborative network has the potential of bringing benefits to the involved entities,
including: an increase in “survivability” of organizations in a context of market
turbulence, as well as the possibility of better achieving common goals by excelling
the individual capabilities or acquiring more visibility and lobbying power. On the
basis of these positive expectations we can find, among others, the following factors:
acquisition of a larger (apparent) dimension, access to new/wider markets and new
knowledge, sharing of risks and resources, joining of complementary skills and
capacities which allow each entity to focus on its core competencies while keeping a
high level of agility, etc. In addition to agility through participation in different
2 Digital Enterprise Technology
networks, the new organizational forms also induce innovation, and thus creation of
new value, by confrontation of ideas and practices, combination of resources and
technologies, and creation of synergies.
2. SOME MANIFESTATIONS
Moving from the classical supply chains format, characterized by relatively stable
networks with well defined roles requiring only minimal coordination and
information exchange, more dynamic structures are emerging in industry. Some of
these organizational forms are goal-oriented, i.e. focused on a single project or
business opportunity, such as the case of virtual enterprises (VE) (Fig. 1). The same
concept can be applied to other contexts, e.g. government and service sectors,
leading to a more general term, the virtual organizations (VO). A VE/VO is often a
temporary organization that “gathers” its potential from the possibility of (rapidly)
forming consortia well suited (in terms of competencies and resources) to each
business opportunity.
VE
coordinator
VE
members
Customer
Access to
instruments
Software
catalogs
Computers
Colleagues Sensor networks
Databases
Visualization
& analysis
Figure 1 – Example of virtual enterprise Figure 2 – Example of collaborative
virtual lab
Other emerging collaborative networks are formed by human professionals that may
collaborate in virtual communities of practice and form virtual teams to address
specific problems, such as collaborative concurrent engineering or development of a
consultancy project.
Fig. 2 illustrates another case of collaborative network, the collaborative virtual
laboratory (VL). Here a virtual experimental environment is provided for scientists
and engineers to perform their experiments, enabling a group of researchers located
around the world to work together, sharing resources (such as expensive lab
equipments) and results. It shall be noted that in this case, in addition to the network
of involved organizations (e.g. research centers), there is an overlapping network of
people. In a research activity most collaboration acts are in fact conducted by
researchers that have a high degree of autonomy. Therefore, in this example, it
becomes evident the necessity of tools to support human collaboration – groupware
tools. A typical VL involves scientific equipments connected to a network, large-
scale simulations, visualization, data reduction and data summarization capabilities,
application-specific databases, collaboration tools, e.g. teleconferencing, federated
data exchange, chat, shared electronic-whiteboard, notepad, etc., application-
dependent software tools and interfaces, safe communications, and large network
Collaborative networks in industry 3
bandwidth. A similar situation can happen in a virtual enterprise when engineering
teams formed by engineers of different enterprises collaborate on some engineering
problem.
Fig.3 illustrates another manifestation combining a network of organizations
with a network of people for remote assistance of elderly. This case consists of a
number of organizations such as care centers, day centers, health care institutions,
and social security institutions acting in cooperation with involved personnel e.g.
health care professionals, social care assistants, elderly people, and their relatives.
When based on computer networks and adequate ICT tools, collaboration among
care institutions may evolve towards operating as a long-term virtual organization
and the various involved humans will become part of a virtual community.
.....................
............
Relative’s job
Care Center
Care Center
Advise
medication
...
Stationary agent
Mobile agent
Internet
Reminder:
Food preparation Agent flow
Message flow
Status
info
Figure 3 – Example of collaborative network in elderly care
Many more examples can be found in different sectors. For instance, we can think of
networks of insurance companies, networks of governmental institutions, networks
of academic institutions forming virtual institutes for joint delivery of advanced
courses, networks of entities involved in disaster rescuing, etc. With the
development of new collaborative tools supported by Internet and a better
understanding of the mechanisms of collaborative networks, new organizational
forms are naturally emerging. And yet all these cases have a number of
characteristics in common:
- Networks composed of a variety of entities - organizations and people – which
are largely autonomous, geographically distributed, and heterogeneous in terms
of their operating environment, culture, social capital and goals.
- Participants collaborate to (better) achieve common or compatible goals.
- The interactions among participants are supported by computer network.
Therefore, the term collaborative network, or more specifically collaborative
networked organization (CNO) when we think of more organized collaboration
processes, is often used as a generic term to represent all these particular cases.
3. BREEDING ENVIRONMENTS
One of the important conditions to leverage the potential of these new organizational
4 Digital Enterprise Technology
forms is the possibility of fast configuration of a consortium well suited to the needs
of a business opportunity once this opportunity is identified (Fig. 4).
Business
Opportunity
CNO
Fast configuration
of a temporary
consortium well
suited to the needs
Short window
of opportunity
Successful
& Effective
collaboration
Market turbulence
Figure 4 – From business opportunity to a dynamic CNO creation
Finding the right partners and establishing the necessary conditions for starting the
collaboration process have however proved to be a difficult and costly task. Among
other factors, the formation of any collaborative coalition depends on its members
sharing some common (or compatible) goals, possessing some level of mutual trust,
having established common (interoperable) infrastructures, and having agreed on
some common (business) practices and values. Achieving these conditions is a pre-
requisite for launching a potentially successful and effective collaborative network.
Although with some differences, similar challenges happen both in the creation of a
network of organizations (virtual organization) or a network of professionals (virtual
team). Fig. 5 illustrates some of the steps involved in the CNO creation process.
•Who?
•Where and How?
•Which brokerage
policy?
•What is of interest?
•Who?
•Which patterns of
collaboration?
•How to structure
the VO / VT?
•Any initial template
model?
•Who?
•Where?
•Which criteria?
•Which base
information?
Profiles?
•Decision support?
•Who?
•Negotiation
process?
•Contracts,
rules&templates?
•Agreements?
•Common
infrastructure?
•Governance
principles?
•Detailed plans?
CO
Identification
CO
characterization
& VO/VT rough
planning
Partners
search
& selection
VO / VT
Launching
Negotiation
&
agreeements
Figure 5 – Main steps in dynamic CNO creation
As implied in Fig. 5, the CNO creation process requires several steps that might be a
difficult and time consuming activity. The situation is not too critical in the case of
long-term collaboration processes not limited to a single business opportunity, such
as in the case of stable supply chains. When the perspectives for the operation phase
are of long-term the necessary initial preparation effort can be affordable. On the
other hand, for some specific niche sectors in which all actors share the same or
compatible tools, business culture and practices, it is possible to quickly form a
consortium even for a short-term single opportunity.
For the other cases, probably the most typical scenario in current industry, the
situation is much more critical. Particularly when the window of opportunity is
short, in order to support rapid formation of CNOs it is necessary that potential
Collaborative networks in industry 5
partners are ready and prepared to participate in such collaboration. This readiness
includes common interoperable infrastructure, common operating rules, and
common cooperation agreement, among others. Any collaboration action also
requires a base level of trust among the organizations. For this case a working
solution is the creation of a long-term association of entities that prepare themselves
to collaborate whenever an opportunity arises. This association of organizations is a
VO Breeding Environment (VBE) [1], [3] for the creation of dynamic VOs.
A Virtual organization Breeding Environment (VBE) is thus an association of
organizations and their related supporting institutions, adhering to a base long term
cooperation agreement, and adoption of common operating principles and
infrastructures, with the main goal of increasing their preparedness towards
collaboration in potential Virtual Organizations [1]. Traditionally, VBEs are
established in a geographic region, in the tradition of industry clusters, with the
advantage of having common business culture and sense of community, as well as
focusing on one of the specialty sectors of the region. But, this restriction can in
most cases be overcome today by an effective information and communication
infrastructure. Examples of such organizations are:
- The Virtuelle Fabrik is a network of about 70 industrial SMEs in Switzerland
and South Germany in the metal-mechanic sector. The network provides a full
range of industrial services and production to the customers. The network
enables the SMEs to act in collaboration with other SMEs the same way as a
very big industrial company. Virtuelle Fabrik AG is the project management and
sales company for this VBE.
- IECOS (Integration Engineering and Construction Systems) is an enterprise that
uses the VBE model integrating capabilities and competences of its partners
(mainly in metal-mechanic and plastic industry) to satisfy customer requirements
in Mexico.
- Swiss Microtech (SMT) is a regional collaborative network created in 2001 by
SMEs of the mechanical subcontracting sector to address together new markets
and develop new products which are beyond their own possibilities if they would
stay alone. SMT has actually 7 members. The very fierce competition on the
prices and the importance of the emerging Chinese market led to the creation in
2005 of DecoCHina, an international VBE combining two regional networks,
SMT and a new parent Chinese network in the Guangdong Province.
- CeBeNetwork represents a supplier network in the aeronautical industry and a
strategic supplier to the main customer Airbus. CeBeNetwork AG is the leader of
this network and acts as a broker as well as a member.
- HELICE is the Andalusian aeronautic cluster, which operates under the VBE
model, to increase process efficiency and business opportunities while fostering
innovation in a sustainable structure. It is registered as a Foundation, linking
main contractors (EADS, AIRBUS, GAMESA), 39 auxiliary SMEs and
supporting entities (Universities, Research Centers and Regional Government).
- Supply Network Shannon (SNS) is an open network of companies in the
Shannon region of Ireland. SNS provides a framework for companies to
collaborate in joint marketing, training development and collaborative quotation
development for participation in outsourcing networks. As such SNS currently
operates as a regional VBE with individual members currently creating sub
networks on a global scale.
6 Digital Enterprise Technology
Many other similar examples can be found in different geographical regions [1], [8].
Well known examples are given by the industrial districts in Italy. There are also
some attempts to transform traditional science parks and enterprise incubators into a
kind of VBE, i.e. moving from a simple sharing of basic infrastructures and services
to a cooperative business context. Based on an empirical analysis of current VBEs,
Table 1 shows an attempt to define a VBE typology.
Table 1 – A typology of VBEs
•Generic,
with regional
focus
•Strong•Possible•Specific sector
(mostly)
•Regional basis
A4
Regional ecosystem
(to preserve local specificities, tradition, culture
… and benefit from government incentives)
•Generic (as
possible)
•Limited•Possible,
limited
(regulated)
•May cover
various
sectors
•Basic adhesion
rule
A3
Complement competencies
(new markets, new products, also dimension)
Focused on a
domain
(in general)
•Limited•Mostly•Organizations in
same
domain/sector
A2
Capacity induced
(too big a “problem” / market for 1 company)
•Extremely
focused
•Limited•Possible•Enterprises &
other
•Highly selective
A1
Customer induced
(to qualify as a supplier)
Market
access
Support
institutions
Overlapping of
competencies
MembershipVBE Types
•Generic,
with regional
focus
•Strong•Possible•Specific sector
(mostly)
•Regional basis
A4
Regional ecosystem
(to preserve local specificities, tradition, culture
… and benefit from government incentives)
•Generic (as
possible)
•Limited•Possible,
limited
(regulated)
•May cover
various
sectors
•Basic adhesion
rule
A3
Complement competencies
(new markets, new products, also dimension)
Focused on a
domain
(in general)
•Limited•Mostly•Organizations in
same
domain/sector
A2
Capacity induced
(too big a “problem” / market for 1 company)
•Extremely
focused
•Limited•Possible•Enterprises &
other
•Highly selective
A1
Customer induced
(to qualify as a supplier)
Market
access
Support
institutions
Overlapping of
competencies
MembershipVBE Types
As in the case of organizations, a similar long term association can be formed with
professionals, in which case it is called a Professional Virtual Community (PVC)
[1], [6]. One example could be an association of free-lancer knowledge workers (e.g.
engineers, consultants). When a business opportunity happens (e.g. a design project
or consultation activity), similarly to the VO creation, a temporary coalition of
experts – a Virtual Team (VT) – can be rapidly formed according to the specific
needs of that business opportunity.
Fig. 6 illustrates a taxonomy of collaborative networks considering both the
long-term breeding environments (strategic alliances) and the goal-oriented
networks.
Collaborative
Network
Ad-hoc
Collaboration
Collaborative
Networked
Organization
Goal-oriented
network
Long-term
strategic
network
Continuous
production
driven net
Grasping
opportunity
driven net
Supply chain
Virtual government
Virtual enterprise
Virtual organization
Extended enterprise
Virtual team
Dynamic VO
Professional
Virtual
Community
VO Breeding
Environment
Industry cluster
Industrialdistrict
Business ecosystem
Collaborative Virtual lab
Disaster rescue network
Virtual institute
Figure 6 – A taxonomy of collaborative networks
Collaborative networks in industry 7
Although a main motivation for the establishment of a breeding environment is to
give its members preparedness to benefit from collaborative business opportunities,
once a VBE is established other benefits can arise to its members. Some of these
benefits are summarized in Table 2.
Table 2 – Some benefits of participation in a breeding environment
•Management of competencies and resources
•Approaches to build trust
•Improve potential of risk taking
•Support members through necessary re-
organization
•Learning and training
•Shared bag of assets
•Organize success stories and joint
advertisement
•Help in attaining clear focus / developing core
competencies
•...
Preparedness
•Agility for opportunity-based VO creation
•Effective common ICTR infrastructure
•Mechanisms, guidelines for VO creation
•General guidelines for collaboration
•Increase chances of VO involvement
•...
•Coping with market turbulence
•Increase chances of survival
•More chances to compete with larger
companies
•Lobbying and market influence (branding /
marketing)
•Easier access to loans
•Cheaper group insurance
•Better negotiation power (e.g. Joint purchasing)
•Prestige, reputation, reference
•Access to explore new market / product (e.g.
Multidisciplinary sector)
•Expand geographical coverage
•Increase potential for innovation
•Economies of scale
•Achieve (global) diversity
•...
Organizational reasonsMarket-related reasons
•Management of competencies and resources
•Approaches to build trust
•Improve potential of risk taking
•Support members through necessary re-
organization
•Learning and training
•Shared bag of assets
•Organize success stories and joint
advertisement
•Help in attaining clear focus / developing core
competencies
•...
Preparedness
•Agility for opportunity-based VO creation
•Effective common ICTR infrastructure
•Mechanisms, guidelines for VO creation
•General guidelines for collaboration
•Increase chances of VO involvement
•...
•Coping with market turbulence
•Increase chances of survival
•More chances to compete with larger
companies
•Lobbying and market influence (branding /
marketing)
•Easier access to loans
•Cheaper group insurance
•Better negotiation power (e.g. Joint purchasing)
•Prestige, reputation, reference
•Access to explore new market / product (e.g.
Multidisciplinary sector)
•Expand geographical coverage
•Increase potential for innovation
•Economies of scale
•Achieve (global) diversity
•...
Organizational reasonsMarket-related reasons
The initial attracting factors are not exactly the same that keep members happy in
the long run. For instance, knowledge acquisition can be a major attracting factor in
the initial phase but rapidly fades as some leveraging of knowledge is achieved.
Table 3 shows some of the most relevant factors, according to empirical observation,
that might keep participants together in a VBE.
Table 3 – Some reasons to stay in a VBE
•Profit from businesses
•Benefiting from the existing infrastructure
•Better marketing possibilities (fairs, cheaper admission costs, better publicity/visibility (better location) ...)
•Better strategic position through the VBE
•Easy access to complementary skills
•Explore new market / new product (multi-disciplinary sector), expand geographical coverage
•Potential for innovation
•Continue profiting from the opportunities only available through the VBE
•Fight against a common enemy
•Better negotiation power
•Existing success stories and advertising
•Gain higher rank for more opportunities
•...
Long-term attraction factors
•Profit from businesses
•Benefiting from the existing infrastructure
•Better marketing possibilities (fairs, cheaper admission costs, better publicity/visibility (better location) ...)
•Better strategic position through the VBE
•Easy access to complementary skills
•Explore new market / new product (multi-disciplinary sector), expand geographical coverage
•Potential for innovation
•Continue profiting from the opportunities only available through the VBE
•Fight against a common enemy
•Better negotiation power
•Existing success stories and advertising
•Gain higher rank for more opportunities
•...
Long-term attraction factors
Nevertheless a current challenge is the development of suitable performance
indicators that provide objective and explicit representation of the benefits. Most
past efforts in performance management were focused on a single enterprise. Other
works such as the SCOR framework developed indicators for supply chains. It is
now necessary to elaborate on a set of appropriate indicators for collaborative
networks in general. This research is however still in its infancy [2], [7]. One
8 Digital Enterprise Technology
example can be found in [8] that suggested a preliminary set of indicators based on
the creation of networks of benefits.
ECOLEAD project. A large number of research projects are carried out worldwide
and a growing number of practical cases on different forms of collaborative
networks are being reported. However, many of these initiatives have a limited focus
and, as a result, lead to a fragmented research panorama. Aiming at providing a
more holistic approach the ECOLEAD integrated project was launched in 2004 as a
4-year initiative, involving 27 industrial and academic organizations from Europe
and Latin America. The fundamental assumption in this project is that a substantial
increase in materializing networked collaborative business requires a comprehensive
holistic approach. Given the complexity of the area and the multiple inter-
dependencies among the involved business entities, social actors, and technologic
approaches, the substantial breakthrough cannot be achieved with only incremental
innovation in isolated areas. Therefore, the project addresses three most fundamental
and inter-related focus areas - constituting pillars - as the basis for dynamic and
sustainable networked organizations including: VO breeding environments, dynamic
Virtual Organizations, and Professional Virtual Communities and Virtual Teams.
As the main focus of work, the VBE pillar addresses the characterization of these
networks, namely in terms of structure, life cycle, competencies, working and
sharing principles, value systems and metrics, the governance principles and trust
building processes, the VBE management, and VO creation. The dynamic VO area
is mainly focused on the VO management and governance approaches, performance
measurement, and VO inheritance. PVC addresses the characterization of these
communities in terms of the socio-economic context, governance principles, social
and legal implications, value systems, metrics and business models, as well as the
support platform for collaboration. Interactions and synergies among these three
entities, namely in terms of business models, value creation and corresponding
metrics, are a major issue of integration. In addition to the three pillars, two
horizontal areas complete the scope of ECOLEAD: Theoretical foundation, which
focus on reference models and soft computing methods applied to CNOs, and
Horizontal ICT infrastructure, which develops a service-oriented infrastructure for
collaboration.
Collaborative networks in industry 9
VO Breeding Environment
Organization Framework
VO Creation Framework
VO Operation & Management
Models and Services
PVC Business Model
PVC Collaboration Platform
Business Model for
ICT Infrastructures
Plug and Play Infrastructure
for CNO collaboration
Theoretical Foundation
for CNOs
Training program on CNOs
Methodology for business
models definition
Value system and trust
in VO breeding environments
VO operation
governance models
Business model, value system
and metrics for PVC
Business models for CNOs
VBE reference framework
Dynamic VO
management models
PVC conceptual framework
Reference framework
for collaboration infrastructures
Plug & Play
infrastructure for collaboration
Dynamic multi-level
security mechanisms
VBE management services
Dynamic VO creation
assistance services
Negotiation wizard
VO management e-services
Advanced collaboration platform
for PVCs
Collaborative problem solving
support e-services
Modeling foundation for CNOs
Reference models for CNOs
Soft modeling foundation for CNOs
Modeling interoperability basis
Lively update of ECOLEAD
workplan and results roadmaps
Long-term strategic roadmap
for CNOs
Model of impact creation &
research results assessm. process
Industrial cases demonstrating
Viability of CNO paradigm
Community of CNO multipliers
Virtual Learning Community
Training curriculum on CNO
Summer schools
Publications
ECOLEAD
strategic results
Business models
& guidelines
Reference models
& architectures
ICT collaboration
infrastructures
ICT collaboration
Support e-srvices
Theoretical
foundation
for CNOs
Roadmapping
for strategic
research
Validation and
Industrial impacts
Training &
educationDissemination
Organizational & operational
Models for PVC
Figure 7 – Strategic and key results of ECOLEAD
Fig. 7 shows the list of strategic results (in the middle) and key results planned
for ECOLEAD.
4. MODELING FRAMEWORK
As identified by different studies, one of the main weaknesses in the area of
collaborative networks is the lack of appropriate theories, consistent paradigms
definition, and adoption of formal modeling tools. In an attempt to contribute to the
establishment of a sounder theoretical foundation for CNOs, a comprehensive
modeling framework was proposed by the ECOLEAD projects – the ARCON (A
Reference Model for CNOs) framework [5]. For the purpose of modeling the CNO
components, at the highest level three perspectives are identified and defined in the
proposed ARCON framework (Fig. 8).
Life cycle
Modeling intent
Environment characteristics
Surrounding environment
CNO
Inside
view
Outside
view
IN-CNO ABOUT-CNO
Creation
Operation
Evolution
Meta-
morphosis
Dissolution
OR
General
Representation
Specific
Modeling
Implementation
Modeling
Figure 8 – Modeling perspectives in ARCON
10 Digital Enterprise Technology
The first perspective addresses the timing cycle for different CNO stages, to capture
the diversity and evolution of CNOs during their entire life cycle (CNO-Life-Cycle
– vertical perspective). The following main stages are considered:
- Creation phase, which can be divided into two phases, namely (i) initiation and
recruiting, dealing with the strategic planning and initial incubation of the CNO;
(ii) foundation, dealing with the constitution and start up.
- Operation phase, the main phase of the life cycle where the goals of the CNO
are in fact achieved.
- Evolution phase, covering potential changes needed during the operation of the
CNO such as changes in roles, replacement of partners, etc.
- Dissolution or Metamorphosis. A temporary CNO such as a VO will typically
dissolve after accomplishing its goal. In the case of a long-term alliance such as a
VBE, considering its valuable bag of assets gradually collected during its
operation, its dissolution is an undesirable situation. Instead, it is much more
probable that this CNO goes through another stage, that we call the metamorphosis
stage, where it can evolve by changing its form and purpose.
A second perspective focuses on capturing the CNO environment characteristics (as
a horizontal perspective). This perspective includes two subspaces (points of view)
to comprehensively cover, the internal (In-CNO) characteristics as well as the
external (About-CNO) characteristics that are related to the logical surrounding of
the CNOs. From the In-CNO point of view the following dimensions are considered:
- Structural dimension, addressing the structure or composition of the CNO’s
constituting elements (namely its participants and their relationships) as well as the
roles performed by those elements and other compositional characteristics of the
network nodes such as the location, time, etc.
- Componential dimension, focusing on the individual tangible/intangible
elements in the CNO’s network, e.g. the resource composition such as human
elements, software and hardware resources, information and knowledge.
Furthermore, the componential dimension also consists of ontology and the
description of the information/knowledge.
- Functional dimension, addressing the “base functions / operations” available at
the network, and time-sequenced flows of executable operations (processes and
procedures) related to the different phases of the CNO life cycle.
- Behavioral dimension, addressing the principles, policies, and governance rules
that drive or constrain the behavior of the CNO and its members over time.
Included here are elements such as principles of collaboration and rules of
conduct, principles of trust, contracts, conflict resolution policies, etc.
Table 4 illustrates the application of these dimensions for the case of a VBE.
Collaborative networks in industry 11
Table 4 – In-CNO perspective for VBEs
Dimension Sub-dimension Examples
Actors / relationships V BE members (business entities, non-profit institutions, support
institutions), collaboration links, trust links, coordination links, etc.
Structural
Roles VBE member, VBE administrator, Broker, VO planner, V O
coordinator, VBE advisor, etc.
Hardware resources
Software resources
(Domain specific) machines, ICT infrastructure
Common software tools, VBE specific s ervices, commercial tools
with special agreement with VBE, etc.
Human resources Human actors performing a role in the VBE.
Info / Knowledge Directory of members, Record of past performance, Directory of
running VOs, Ranking and Ratings, Patents, etc.
Componential
Ontology resources Common ontology, Profile and competencies ontology, etc.
Processes VBE creation processes (initiation & recruiting, foundation), Trust
management process, Competency management process,
Marketing & promotion process, VO creation process,
Metamorphosis process, etc.
Aux. processes Assets management process, VBE Monitoring process, Incentive
creation process, Competencies assessment process, etc.
Functional
Methodologies Conflict resolution procedure, Performance management
procedure, Members registration procedure, Competences and
Profiling management approach, etc.
Prescriptive behavior Membership eligibility principles, Brokering principles, Decision-
making principles, Rewarding and Sanctioning principles,
Leadership principles, Commitment rules, etc
Obligatory behavior Bylaws, VBE behavior rules (Ethical co de and culture), Governance
policies, etc.
Constraints &
conditions
Constraints imposed by the external environment, Constraints on
the use of some resources, Constraints on timing for interactions
(when partners in different time zones), Legal constrains to VBE
due to differences in government laws among countries, possible
cultural constrains, etc.
Behavioral
Contracts &
agreements
VBE ad hesion contract, VBE cooperation agreement, Contract
templates for VOs, etc.
From the About-CNO point of view 4 dimensions are also considered in ARCON:
- Market dimension, covering the issues related to both the interactions with
“customers” (or potential beneficiaries) and “competitors”.
- Support dimension, covering the issues related to support services provided by
third party institutions (outside the CNO).
- Societal dimension, capturing the issues related to interactions between the CNO
and the society in general.
- Constituency dimension, focusing on the interaction with the universe of
potential new members of the CNO, i.e. the interactions with those organizations
that are not part of the CNO but that the CNO might be interested in attracting.
The third perspective (diagonal perspective) is related to different intents for the
modeling of CNOs:
General concepts level – that includes the most general concepts and related
relationships, common to all CNOs independently of the application domain (e.g.
all kinds of VBEs independent of the area).
Specific modeling level – an intermediate level that includes more detailed
models focused on different classes of CNOs (the CNO typology).
Implementation modeling level – that represents models of concrete CNOs.
Further details on the ARCON reference modeling framework can be found in [5].
Fig. 9 combines the three mentioned perspectives into a single diagram.
12 Digital Enterprise Technology
In-CNO Abstractions
CNO-Life-Cycle Stages
Operation
Evolution
Model Intent
Creation
Dissolution
General
Representation
Specific
Modeling
Implementation
Modeling
About-CNO Abstractions
Figure
9 – The ARCON modeling framework for CNOs
Lack of reference models for collaborative networks or even to some of their
manifestations (such as virtual enterprises) is a common concern found in the
literature, being also pointed out as an obstacle for a more consistent development of
the area. The difficulties are found namely in the terminology and associated
meanings, what leads to frequent misunderstandings among members of the
community which often possess different original backgrounds.
A reference model is a generic abstract representation for understanding the
entities and the significant relationships among those entities of some area, and for
the derivation of other specific models for particular cases in that area. Preferably a
reference model is based on a small number of unifying concepts and may be used
for education, explaining concepts, and systems’ development. A reference model
for Collaborative Networked Organizations (CNOs) is thus a generic conceptual
model that synthesizes and formalizes the base concepts, principles and
recommended practices for collaborative networked organizations. It is intended as
an authoritative basis (guide) to streamline or facilitate the creation of focused
models for the various manifestations of CNOs as well as architectures and
implementation models for particular systems development. On the other hand it is
important to have in mind that a reference model is generic and not directly
applicable to concrete cases but rather provides the basis for the development
(derivation) of other models closer to those cases.
With reference to Fig. 9, a reference model for CNOs will cover basically the
first layer, i.e. the General Representation layer. In terms of representation, a generic
tool like UML, or another standard representation formalism (like an ontology
representation language) that is proper for human understanding can be adequate for
representation of the general concepts level. An effort in this direction is currently
being made in the ECOLEAD project [5].
Collaborative networks in industry 13
5. CONCLUSIONS AND CHALLENGES
The emergence of a large diversity of collaborative organizational forms in industry
shows that CNOs are recognized in society as a very important instrument for
survival of organizations in a period of turbulent socio-economic changes. It is also
being recognized that a new discipline of collaborative networks is being founded.
Breeding environments play a fundamental role in creating the conditions for the
rapid formation of consortia to respond to business opportunities. Once a VBE is
established, a number of additional benefits of these long-term alliances are also
becoming evident. With the geographical relocation of some industrial activities,
collaborative networks can also be an instrument to help in dynamic reorganization
of local capacities and competencies in a given region. It is however necessary to
invest more on the theoretical foundation for collaborative networks.
Acknowledgements. This work was supported in part by the ECOLEAD project funded by
the European Commission. The author also thanks the contributions from his partners in the
project consortium.
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