Simulating the Influence of Collaborative Networks on the Structure of Networks of Organizations, Employment Structure, and Organization Value

From the perspective of reindustrialization, it is important to understand the evolution of the structure of the network of organizations employment structure, and organization value. Understanding the potential influence of collaborative networks (CNs) on these aspects may lead to the development of appropriate economic policies. In this paper, we propose a theoretical approach to analysis this potential influence, based on a model of dynamic networked ecosystem of organizations encompassing collaboration relations among organization, employment mobility, and organization value. A large number of simulations has been performed to identify factors influencing the structure of the network of organizations employment structure, and organization value. The main findings are that 1) the higher the number of members of CNs, the better the clustering and the shorter the average path length among organizations; 2) the constitution of CNs does not affect neither the structure of the network of organizations, nor the employment structure and the organization value.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, conference paper at the 14th IFIP Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises, PRO-VE'13, http://www.pro-ve.org

Detecting Covert Networks in Multilingual Groups: Evidence within a Virtual World

This paper introduces an approach for the examination and organization of unstructured text to identify relationships between networks of individuals. This approach uses discourse analysis to identify information providers and recipients and determines the structure of covert organizations irrespective of the language that facilitate conversations between members. Then, this method applies social network analytics to determine the arrangement of a covert organization without any a priori knowledge of the network structure. This approach is tested and validated using communication data collected in a virtual world setting. Our analysis indicates that the proposed framework successfully detected the covert structure of three information networks, and their cliques, within an online gaming community during a simulation of a large-scale event

The structure of Organizational Virtual Social Networks

Organizational virtual social networks (OVSN) reshape social structures due to their ability to strengthen social ties, to change power relations and to enable new forms of cooperation. Research in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has led to various approaches that analyze the impact of OVSN on organizations in terms of structure and behavior. Our study aims to analyze important features related to the structure of OVSN. It also aims to strengthen a network approach to analyze organizational phenomena such as working groups and connected individuals, as well as the impact of online networks in organizations. This study was based on the lines of approach described by Oinas-Kukkonen et al. (2010) and on the research carried out by Bobsin & Hoppen (2012) to understand the process of structuring OVSN. Our main results are an OVSN structure consisting of actors and roles, interactions, operating elements and articulating goals. We also analyzed some structural elements of networks which may contribute to the development of a network based approach to study organizational phenomena

Strategic positioning of global manufacturing virtual networks in the aeronautical industry

The evolution of organizations that work in multinational environments has considerably altered their production strategies. One of the consequences has been the appearance of Global Manufacturing Virtual Networks (GMVNs), which include all kinds of production centres and establish a new type of vertical and horizontal collaboration between independent companies or even competitors who establish occasional collaborations on projects they could not take on individually. This paper analyses the causes behind the formation of such networks, their strategy positioning and future evolution. For that purpose, a conceptual framework is proposed based on four network features: strategy, structure, communication systems and culture. This work will deep into the strategy network feature by applying a strategic positioning model to a practical case in the aeronautical industry to gain a better understanding of how GMVNs work, its effectiveness by clarifying and putting these organizations in perspective and how they may evolve in the future

What is a networked business?

Due to increasing competitive pressure in their market, many enterprises are implementing changes to the way they conduct business. These changes range from implementing new IT, to redesigning the structure of the organization and entering into all kinds of cooperations with other enterprises, forming what we call a ‘networked business’. In this paper, we try to explain the origin of the networked business from three different, but related, perspectives: resource dependence, transaction cost and IT impact. We also explore some terms that are used to describe interorganizational structures to find their principal components in an attempt to determine relationships between them and find a broad and precise, new definition of the term ‘networked business’

Designing a Web-Based Knowledge Repository in A Virtual Team and Exploring Its Usefulness

By using a computer network, geographically distributed people with common goals can communicate and collaborate their work efforts across time and space barriers. These groups has been called virtual teams (Geber, 1995). The virtual teams are used to support various kinds of collaborative efforts ranging from routine, mundane works to complex, creative works (Geber, 1995; Snizek, 1995). Because the virtual teams can bring together the right mix of people who have the appropriate set of knowledge, skills, information, and authority to solve difficult problems quickly and easily, they are receiving considerable attention from knowledge workers (Boldyreff et al., 1996; McGuire, 1996). These knowledge workers are characterized as highly qualified individuals who need to make decisions under non- routine, unstructured, and uncertain environments (Knight et al., 1993). As the numerous benefits and advantages of the virtual teams in increasing effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge workers becomes widely recognized, organizations face a new challenge in coping with their new organizational structure (Davidow & Malone, 1993). The challenge is to turn the scattered, diverse knowledge of their knowledge workers who are working in a virtual team into a well-structured knowledge repository (Spek & Spijkervet, 1996; Wiig, 1993)

A VOC Based Approach to Support Virtual Organizations

Employing IT as the key enable technology, virtual organization (VO) is primarily characterized as being a network of independent, geographically dispersed organizations (member organization) providing electronic services via Internet. To align these services effectively, one of the main challenges is to model cooperation in VO and provide correspondent management tools. Here we present a VOC (VO Structure-Organization Resource-Character) approach to model and run VO. VOC consists of three models. VO Structure model describes how VO functions in terms of VO Role (VR), Protocol; Organization Resource model describes potential service providers (potential member organization) capable participate VO. Character Model describes dynamic binding relationship between VO role and member organization. Following the VOC model，a platform supporting the design, administration, and running of VOC is given

Social Requirements for Virtual Organization Breeding Environments

The creation of Virtual Breeding Environments (VBE) is a topic which has received too little attention: in most former works, the existence of the VBE is either assumed, or is considered as the result of the voluntary, participatory gathering of a set of candidate companies. In this paper, the creation of a VBE by a third authority is considered: chambers of commerce, as organizations whose goal is to promote and facilitate business interests and activity in the community, could be good candidates for exogenous VBE creators. During VBE planning, there is a need to specify social requirements for the VBE. In this paper, SNA metrics are proposed as a way for a VBE planner to express social requirements for a VBE to be created. Additionally, a set of social requirements for VO planners, VO brokers, and VBE members are proposed.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Agile and Pro-Active Public Administration as a Collaborative Networked Organization

In highly competitive, globalized economies and societies of always-on-line people intensively using the Internet and mobile phones, public administrations have to adapt to new challenges. Enterprises and citizens expect public administrations to be agile and pro-active to foster development. A way to achieve agility and pro-activity is application of a model of Collaborative Network Organizations in its two forms: Virtual Organizations (VO) and Virtual Organization Breeding Environments (VOBE). In the paper, advantages are shown of public administration playing a role of a Virtual Organization customer on the one hand, and a Virtual Organization member on the other hand. It is also shown how public administration playing a role of a Virtual Organization Breeding Environment may improve its agility and promote advanced technologies and management methods among local organizations. It is argued in the paper that public administration should provide a Virtual Organization Breeding Environment as a part of public services.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure