Search

A systematic literature review is a synthesis of the available evidence, in which a review of quantitative and qualitative aspects of primary studies is carried out, to summarize the existing information regarding a particular topic. The researchers extract key criteria from papers collected about their study area, answering research questions and conducting document analysis. Nonetheless, in some cases, these criteria are improperly justified, unknowing their true level of importance in the study subject. Hence, an additional study is necessary to explain the criteria relevance in the papers studied using qualitative and quantitative premises. The correct identification of these key criteria is a critical factor in prioritizing and achieving appropriate results in any scientific research work. In our paper, a new method to determine key criteria from a literature review is proposed, composed of three components: input-process-output. First, the inputs are a set of criteria to evaluate and a set of documents to analyze. Next, the process component examines the document set to indicate whether the criteria to be analyzed are found. The process component produces a Boolean matrix, which is the input of the mathematical logic process that will get the key criteria considered necessary and sufficient as the output component. The iKeyCriteria method has been applied in different computing domains, particularly for serious games design and virtual organizations, giving positive results in each context. Finally, we developed an online tool that provides global support to the execution of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative networks (CNs) leverage the improving sociability and usability features of information technology to enable and enhance partnering that delivers competitive solutions. This partnering is motivated by business, supply chain, market and technological evolutions that create uncertainty and pressure on independently operating firms. Accordingly, literature on CNs has enhanced practice by shedding light on the collaboration patterns that underlie CNs and the different management mechanisms that are required to cope with the complexity of CNs. The purpose of this article is to systematically review the state-of-the-art of research for CNs with a view to identifying future research potentials and directions. It offers an assembling, critical appraisal and synthesis of the literature on CNs and focuses on the logic and management of CNs. It contributes to knowledge by outlining a multi-level framework of CNs based on the review findings. It is anticipated that the review will serve as the foundation for breaking new grounds in research and further advance the discipline of CNs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed at mapping the international production over the interface between entrepreneurial and innovative strategies and knowledge management in the ISI Web of Science database with a 20-year temporal cut by highlighting the theoretical and methodological aspects to be explored. It is a bibliometric study in which the data were collected from the Web of Science database and processed through the HistCiteTM bibliometric analysis and visualization software. Through the research it was possible to identify the distribution of publications by year, the journals with the most articles published on the subject, the main authors, the country of origin of the publications, the principal journals, the theoretical gaps on the interface between the themes researched and the main methodological approaches. As a managerial contribution, this research shows the comprehension that the entrepreneurial and innovative strategies and KM must be linked to the business strategies, whereas the business strategy design needs, above all, to take the shape of a learning process overtime, which can be enabled through the organizational Knowledge Management model. Through this research, it was also possible to identify emerging themes on the interface between entrepreneurial, innovative strategies and knowledge management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Scientific Journal of the Military University of Land Forces is the property of Gen. Tadeusz Kosciuszko Military Academy of Land Forces and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The success of a virtual organisation's (VO) operations is vitally dependent on interoperability and close collaboration between allied organisations and enterprises. This paper proposes a semantic web rule-based knowledge system applied to collaboration moderator service (CMS) to enable semantic integration of heterogeneous data for the moderation of shared knowledge among cooperative VOs. The proposed approach also shows how the new generation of the CMS supports collaborative working by: enhancing interoperability across different enterprise information systems, monitoring the activities of partners within the collaboration to identify opportunities for enhanced collaboration and raising awareness of potential misunderstandings or conflicts between partner strategies or decisions. Therefore, the semantic knowledge systems of CMS can function on a platform that supports interoperability and collaborative activities within VOs. A case study is conducted to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed model and the test results confirm its suitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A virtual enterprise (VE) involves the coordination of collaborative partners in the supply chain network. To seek the market opportunity, the VE initiator and the VE partners have to negotiate with each other to achieve mutual gains as well as ultimate customer satisfaction. Messages sent and received by the counterparts during the negotiation process are considered as negotiation knowledge. However, it is difficult for different companies involved in the VE to recognise the heterogeneous knowledge on their own, especially in an agent-based negotiation system. Thus, semantic interoperability is an important issue in a VE. The objective of this research is to propose an ontology-based knowledge representation approach to provide a semantic interoperable environment to realise automatic negotiations in the VE. The contribution of this article is twofold. On the one hand, an ontology-based knowledge representation scheme is established for VE partners' ontology construction, matching and integration. On the other hand, two agent interaction protocols are developed for the multi-agent system (MAS) to retrieve semantic correspondences and conduct bid negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partner selection in virtual enterprises (VE) can be viewed as a multi-criteria decision making problem that involves assessing trade-offs between conflicting tangible and intangible criteria. In general, this is a very complex problem due to the dynamic topology of the network, the large number of alternatives and the different types of criteria. In this paper we propose an exploratory process to help the decision-maker obtain knowledge about the network in order to identify the criteria and the companies that best suit the needs of each particular project. This process involves a multi-objective tabu search metaheuristic designed to find a good approximation of the Pareto front, and a fuzzy TOPSIS algorithm to rank the alternative VE configurations. In the exploratory phase we apply clustering analysis to confine the search according to the decision-maker beliefs, and case base reasoning, an artificial intelligence approach, to totally or partially construct VEs by reusing past experiences. Preliminary computational results clearly demonstrate the potential of the approach for practical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative networks (CNs) enhance the preparedness of their participants to promptly form virtual organisations (VOs) that are able to successfully tender for large scale and distributed projects. However, the CN efficiency essentially depends on the ability of its managers to match and customise available reference models and often, also to create new project activities. Thus, given a particular VO creation project, the CN managers must promptly infer 'what needs to be done' (discover the project processes) and how to best communicate their 'justified beliefs' to the CN members involved. This paper proposes a framework for a decision support system that can help managers and enterprise architects discover/update the main activities and aspects that need to be modelled for various enterprise task types, with special emphasis on the creation of VOs. The framework content is also briefly explained 'by example', in the context of a real-world scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the operation phase of a virtual enterprise (VE) different kinds of unexpected problems usually take place and they should be properly handled in order to keep the VE goals. However, the nature of a VE imposes new requirements as decisions should be taken in a distributed and decentralised manner due to members' autonomy and independence. Besides quality, agility in the decision-making is a must to guarantee success. For that, this paper presents a framework that provides a supporting methodology for guiding VE members along the diverse steps in the problem resolution, including assistance in their discussion. The framework relies on Business Process Management (BPM) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approaches, and the methodology on project management reference models (focused on changes management). A discussion about the problem is driven by a semi-automated protocol conducted by a Distributed Collaborative Decision Support System for the Management of VE Evolution (DSS-VE). The protocol delineates a sequence of steps to be taken but is flexible to cope with partners' heterogeneity and VE uniqueness. The impact of decisions can be evaluated via a distributed toolbox, containing a set of techniques for performance measurement and evaluation analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative networks are typically formed by heterogeneous and autonomous entities, and thus it is natural that each member has its own set of core-values. Since these values somehow drive the behaviour of the involved entities, the ability to quickly identify partners with compatible or common core-values represents an important element for the success of collaborative networks. However, tools to assess or measure the level of alignment of core-values are lacking. Since the concept of 'alignment' in this context is still ill-defined and shows a multifaceted nature, three perspectives are discussed. The first one uses a causal maps approach in order to capture, structure, and represent the influence relationships among core-values. This representation provides the basis to measure the alignment in terms of the structural similarity and influence among value systems. The second perspective considers the compatibility and incompatibility among core-values in order to define the alignment level. Under this perspective we propose a fuzzy inference system to estimate the alignment level, since this approach allows dealing with variables that are vaguely defined, and whose inter-relationships are difficult to define. Another advantage provided by this method is the possibility to incorporate expert human judgment in the definition of the alignment level. The last perspective uses a belief Bayesian network method, and was selected in order to assess the alignment level based on members' past behaviour. An example of application is presented where the details of each method are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being able to rapidly react to a collaboration opportunity (CO) in the fast changing market conditions is a key requirement for dynamic virtual organisations (VOs). One way to make the process of VO creation agile is assuming a context of a virtual organisation breeding environment (VBE), which operates like an alliance of organisations, guaranteeing the preparedness of its members to engage in dynamic virtual organisations to rapidly respond to a collaboration opportunity. The process for VO creation discussed here consists of a computer assisted framework to aid organisations namely in finding suitable collaboration opportunities and characterise them; making a plan for the VO that fulfils the CO requirements; and finding the right partners to accomplish the necessary actions. All these tasks are accompanied by a negotiation process either in terms of selecting the best partners or in reaching agreements on the details of the VO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative networks are an increasing trend in highly competitive globalised economies, where collaboration is essential to succeed. Some specific challenges in collaborative networks, either for a virtual breeding environment (VBE) or a virtual organisation (VO), are in the first instance, to support the VBE members' integration process to the source network in order to establish: cooperation agreements, common operation principles, common interoperable infrastructures, common ontologies, and mutual trust towards guaranteeing that potential VO partners within the VBE are ready in advance to participate in dynamic coalitions and collaborative endeavours. In the second instance, the VO partners' selection process faces the challenge of matching a particular collaboration opportunity with specific competency requirements available in a set of potential VO partners. This paper presents a readiness for collaboration assessment and enhancing approach aiming at identifying critical evaluation elements referred to as readiness for collaboration assessments in order to determine if a potential VBE member has the needed elements to collaborate and participate in a collaborative network such as a VBE or a VO. In case it lacks these elements, the approach will provide enhancing mechanisms to improve its readiness level for collaboration towards increasing both its chances and preparedness towards collaboration in potential VOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of Virtual Enterprise (VE), a special organization of manufacturing units and enterprises, has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Unlike traditional enterprise, VE is most suitable in production environments that experience frequent changes in product mix. To complete a complex task composed of some sub-tasks, traditional control architecture is not versatile enough to coordinate and schedule multi-site and multi-type resources, especially in resolving resource conflicts during operations. Using hybrid control architecture, VE can execute the effective control on multi-site enterprises to support the rapid response to customer demands. Coordination mechanism running through the total life cycle of VE is applied to coordinating and scheduling the requests from different tasks and resources, which make VE flexible, adaptive and robust. In this paper, the hybrid control architecture based on multi-agent technology that supports the cooperation of enterprises is presented. Coordination mechanism and the corresponding optimal models are discussed. Finally a case study is used as an illustration to present the detailed coordination mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, virtual enterprise (VE) is an important paradigm of business management in an agile environment. VE exists in several kinds of business organization through multi-layered product flows. It is obvious that a mechanism, through which these different enterprises can be integrated together, is required for the better management of VE. In this paper, we focus on the negotiation process in VE formulation as a basic research to clarify its effective management. Each enterprise in VE is defined as a software agent with multi-utilities, and three types of primitive business models are targeted, such as the vertically integrated business model, horizontally specialized business model and hybrid business model. We develop a three-layered VE model for computer simulation so as to clarify VE formulation dynamism with the proposed negotiation mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outsourcing is a major driver in the growth of virtual organizations (VOs) in the manufacturing domain. These outsourcing networks can be classified as VOs as they are created from different organizational entities for a specific purpose and exist for a specified period of time. This paper proposes the use of discrete event simulation (DES) as a means of evaluating proposed VO configurations within the request for quotation (RFQ) process. The work presented is targeted at manufacturing-based VOs that are created to carry out specific manufacturing tasks as outlined in an RFQ, rather than more general project-based VOs that are formed to carry out work within a less defined structure. Data from an existing virtual breeding environment (VBE), obtained during field research into outsourcing networks, is used to illustrate the use of DES to support VO creation. As DES requires a high level of skill to use, the design of an easy-to-use web-based application with an embedded simulation engine is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of a common value system is an important element for the sustainability of collaborative networks. However, since the networks are typically formed by heterogeneous and autonomous entities, it is natural that each member has its own set of values and effort to align the various value systems is therefore necessary. In this context, the role of value systems in the virtual organization breeding environment is discussed under the assumption that the promotion of cooperation is based on the reciprocity mechanism. Example scenarios are included in the discussion and illustrations are given based on data from real networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author is involved in a multi-year programme to establish a number of large-scale manufacturing SME collaboration projects. It was anticipated that some web-based tools used previously by larger firms could be adapted, but limits in the capabilities of the participant firms and the emergence of a different business model led to a change in approach. Participants had quite diverse internal ICT capabilities that might be used for bidding collaboratively for manufacturing contracts, or for operating as an extended enterprise. Some way of mapping the functional project needs and comparing these with participant capabilities was needed. In this paper an adaptation of the notion of absorptive capacity where both a firm's resource base and its knowledge base are considered is used as a framework to better understand participant requirements. This was subsequently used in building a web-based virtual enterprise support system that utilized simple, lowest cost system components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing trust relationships among the member organizations in a virtual organization breeding environment (VBE) is a pre-condition for their smooth cooperation. Furthermore, considering that effective creation of virtual organizations (VOs) is the main aim of the VBEs, the measurement of an organization's trust level facilitates the selection of partners for configuration and establishment of VOs. While in a small-size VBE e.g. with 20 to 40 members, organizations may have a good chance to get to know each other, and can therefore have a subjective (opinion-based) judgment of the trust level of others, in medium and large-size VBEs, trust analysis of other organizations is a main obstacle for VO creation and a big challenge. Design and development of an objective (fact-based) approach for assessing the trust level and establishing trust relationships among organizations is of particular importance for large and very large VBEs, where usually their member organizations may not even be totally known to each other. This paper addresses an objective trust analysis approach for the VBEs. It identifies and describes trust elements that are necessary for measuring and assessing the trust level of different organizations. The paper addresses trust in VBEs through defining: the hierarchy of trust elements, the impacts of various values of trust criteria on the trust levels, and the causal influences among different trust criteria. It also identifies and addresses three main VBE trust objectives, namely for creating the trust: (1) among VBE member organizations, (2) between the member organizations and the VBE administration, and (3) between the external stakeholders (e.g. the customer) and the VBE establishment. It then presents an approach to assess the trust level of member organizations. For the paper, the perishable product market is used to exemplify different aspects of trust. Besides the VBE environments, the approaches for modelling, analysis, and assessment of trust that are discussed in this paper are entirely, or at least for the most part, directly applicable to other forms of collaborative networked organizations, such as the VOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aggressive and competitive business environment of today, enterprises are expected to achieve competitive advantages in synergy, under the format of reconfigurable global networked structures, such as the virtual enterprise (VE) organizational model, integrating the optimal resources (products, operations, services) for each of the functions that the enterprise undertakes, in order to produce a product that meets the market requirements. The literature shows that several Internet-based tools can be used to enable some activities of VE integration. However, as we demonstrate, these do not support the reconfiguration dynamics required by this organizational model. Alternatively, the authors propose the market of resources (MR) as an environment to fully support VE integration, coping with its intrinsic requirement of high reconfigurability. Based on a demonstrator developed for the MR and on cost models traducing VE integration, one for the (traditional) Internet-based tools and the other for the MR, to support an analytical simulation, the paper validates the thesis that the traditional tools cannot support agility and dynamics, presenting the MR as a VE enabler, and identifying the domain of situations where the utilization of the MR reveals increased efficiency in terms of search and selection time and cost - designated as opportunities domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A virtual enterprise has been considered as a temporary consortium of companies. Recently, researchers have investigated virtual enterprises from various perspectives, such as business activities and workflows, information exchanges and their standards, organizational behaviours between companies, etc. However, real collaborative activities among companies in a virtual enterprise cannot be done before a partnership is developed among companies. Besides, though partnership is important in virtual enterprises, a decision model for partnership development is seldom studied. This research develops a decision model from a micro view (i,e. from a company's perspective). A company may use the model to specify its current partnership strategy and determine its future partnership strategy with another company. Four factors are considered in the model: the format of the relationship with suppliers, the number of suppliers, the type of service provided by suppliers and the method of service delivery from suppliers. However, a partnership strategy has to be updated based on internal and external changes. This research finds out that six factors are associated with a change in partnership. With those factors, a decision process is developed for a company to update its partnership strategy. The partnership of IBM to Acer is also investigated to illustrate the application of the model. The results validate the applicability of the decision model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new manufacturing paradigms, such as agile manufacture and lean production, are leading industrial countries towards the new generation of concurrent enterprises involving virtual enterprise architecture and concurrent engineering extended methodology. Continuing adaptation to the market can only be achieved efficiently if the planning and control processes are both optimized horizontally (Automatic Control Systems) and vertically (Management Control Systems). The desired improvement in performance and the realization of global enterprise objectives require a tight integration of the units of the enterprise. The close monitoring of the operational performance of various plants, manufacturing shop-floors/cells/machines, as well as their associated instrumentation and control is of increasing strategic importance. Failures can lead to increased costs and reduced product quality, consistency and production, and to plant shutdowns and increased environmental impact. There is a real need for advanced monitoring technologies to be applied, and their potential demonstrated, on complex industrial plants. The planning and scheduling of manufacturing systems integrated into virtual enterprise architectures requires the implementation of new General Master Production Planning and Scheduling techniques and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) functions. This paper discusses some key issues on the SCADA-oriented open system for virtual enterprise architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of digital economy is based on intellectual capital resources management in a virtual world, on a virtual market. Raw materials, energy, money from traditional economy are being replaced with information, knowledge and technological development and changes in the digital economy. Many laws which apply in the traditional economy do not apply in the digital economy. Radical and fast changes which have occurred in the last decade, point to new stages of development which are conceptually and historically changing the economic and social environment and activity of the subjects. Information industry and communication technology influence on development of the new economy globally, not only on national basis as in the traditional economy. Marketing through a company's website is particularly important if it strives to obtain results for the invested time and money. Creating an appropriate web site, as a tool of internet marketing is aimed as effectivness of the virtual company, increasing the number of consumers of its products and improving its brand, generally. Due to the vast importance of this problematics, the paper will analyze the essential elements for maintaining an efficient marketing strategy of the virtual company, the legal assumptions for registration of a web site in the Republic of Macedonia, obligations of companies in the area of consumer's protection when concluding distance contracts - contracts which are concluded by means of communication at a distance and the actual condition/statistic indicators of using web sites in electronic trade in the Republic of Macedonia and the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes Virtual communities of gamers, bloggers, and hikikomori in the aspect of communication in cyberspace. The features of their communicative interaction in terms of social, cultural, personal and age factors’ influence are examined. Some features of specifics of formation of virtual organizations of users with social interaction and communication issues are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, two topics have made prominent debuts in the management literature--"virtual" corporations and trust within and among organizations. These two themes are related in that trust is important to the success of the virtual corporation. This article argues that confidence in the development of virtual corporations may be premature because of what we call the Virtual Corporation Paradox. This paradox can be succinctly stated: the short-term, transient deal-making on which the efficiency of the virtual corporation rests greatly impedes the development of the mutually trusting and cooperative relationships on which its success depends. We examine both economic and sociological explanations for the emergence of trust in similar situations and find both deficient. We conclude that the success of virtual corporations will ultimately depend on an ethics-based form of corporate "character" that allows firms to develop trusting relationships without the usual safeguards or social norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A global virtual team is an example of a boundaryless network organization form where a temporary team is assembled on an as-needed basis for the duration of a task and staffed by members from different countries. In such teams, coordination is accomplished via trust and shared communication systems. The focus of the reported study was to explore the antecedents of trust in a global virtual-team setting. Seventy-five teams, consisting of four to six members residing in different countries, interacted and worked together for eight weeks. The two-week trust-building exercises did have a significant effect on the team members' perceptions of the other members' ability, integrity, and benevolence. In the early phases of teamwork, team trust was predicted strongest by perceptions of other team members' integrity, and weakest by perceptions of their benevolence. The effect of other members' perceived ability on trust decreased over time. The members' own propensity to trust had a significant, though unchanging, effect on trust. A qualitative analysis of six teams' electronic mail messages explored strategies that were used by the three highest trust teams, but were used infrequently or not at all by the three lowest trust teams. The strategies suggest the presence of "swift" trust. The paper advances a research model for explaining trust in global virtual teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a set of information technology variables which can be used in designing organizations. We first discuss traditional design variables and then present a series of options enabled by modern information technology (IT). We use these IT design variables to describe four prototypical organizations that are beginning to appear in the workplace: virtual, negotiated, traditional, and vertically integrated. It is argued that an organization designer must also consider how structure and technology influence job tasks and people in order to be successful. We then discuss potential implementation difficulties, particularly in motivating traditional organizations to take advantage of IT design variables. We conclude that the design of information technology and the design of organizations are largely becoming the same task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using narrative theory, this article explores strategic management as a form of fiction. After introducing several key narrative concepts, we discuss the challenges strategists have faced in making strategic discourse both credible and novel and consider how strategic narratives may change within the "virtual" organization of the future. We also provide a number of narrativist-oriented research questions and methodological suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social contexts are essential for human decision-making, providing the basis for inferences and activities planning. Computationally, this social information is incorporated to the concept of social computing, and applied in very different research fields, such as Medicine, Cyber Security or Economy. The specific aim of this work is to apply social computing in a musical context. We want humans and machines to cooperate for the purpose of generating music from the colors of a digital image; the colors of an image are used as inspiration for the generation of melodies. The social machine is implemented as a Virtual Organization (VO), which contains a case-based reasoning process to select the best combination of sounds extracted from the colors according to the social context. In order to evaluate the present approach, a small society of musical experts rate the sound produced following consonance criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose an applicable method for establishing the dynamic inter-organizational collaborations (DIOCs) based on the scrum methodology.Design/methodology/approach The scrum methodology embedded within the context of the DIOC project life cycle was used and adapted to being usable with specific characteristics of the project.Findings In order to succeed in the highly competitive, dynamic and changing business environments, the organizations need to change their view of business practices. The transition from the traditional status of manufacturing to the inter-organizational collaborations can be one of the fundamental changes in the modern business management. The proposed method has the capability to establish DIOCs effectively and efficiently whilst guaranteeing agility, competitiveness, and risk timely management.Originality/value Establishing collaborative alliances via association of various experienced and professional organizations and producing the value-added market’s need services is an effective and efficient solution for survival of SMEs in the current competitive, dynamic and changing business environment. So far, different frameworks, reference models/architectures, and many theoretical discussions have been presented for DIOCs context, but these representations are conceptual, empirical and generic. This paper aims to propose an applicable iterative and incremental method for establishing the DIOC which guarantees the agility and risk timely management of the establishment process and promotes competitiveness of partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]