Rolando Vargas Vallejos

Agent-based brokerage for virtual enterprise creation in the moulds industry

Brokerage and partners search is an important activity in the creation phase of a virtual enterprise (VE), where the most adequate consortium of enterprises should be selected to respond to a given business opportunity obtained by a broker. This paper proposes a multi-agent-based architecture to support this functionality in the context of a cluster of twelve enterprises in the moulds and die sector. The system includes a broker agent, a facilitator and consortium agents that plan the possible VEs, and a set of agents representing the enterprises participating in the cluster. The contract-net protocol is used to collect bids from cluster members and to select the most adequate ones. In case the cluster does not cover all the requirements a more general search for partners can be performed on Internet-based directories of enterprises

An Ontology-Based Approach for Selecting Performance Indicators for Partners Suggestion

In the current fast-paced world, organizations do not have time to postpone ideas due to the lack of suitable technical and scientific supports that can help them in a rapid connection establishment in order to develop collaborative works. This paper presents a methodology that aids the user to find the appropriated performance indicators that may be used to compare and after to suggest a suitable set of organizations to fulfill a specific Collaboration Opportunity. In this work is made an assumption that the Virtual Organization Breeding Environment has a common set of performance indicators that are known and agreed among the involved organizations.

A framework for selecting performance indicators for virtual organisation partners’ search and selection

In the current dynamic world where organisations are inserted in, there is no time to postpone businesses due to the lack of support that can help organisations to establish connections with others agilely. In this context, one of the critical issues in the creation of a virtual organisation is the selection of partners. This article addresses a very closely related issue, which is the selection of the performance indicators (PIs) that should be applied to drive the partners’ search. Considering the complexity of this task, this article presents a framework developed to aid the user to find appropriate PIs to compare and suggest organisations for a specific collaboration opportunity.

Towards the development of a framework to create a virtual organisation breeding environment in the mould and die sector

The effective creation of Virtual Enterprises emerges after the development of: (i) a new working culture and (ii) a computer-enabled infrastructure supporting inter-operation of companies. These developments are facilitated if the potential partners belong to a Virtual Organisation Breeding Environment (VBE). This paper describes a framework to create and support the life cycle of Virtual Enterprises operating (relying on a VBE) in the mould and die sector. The proposed framework is called AmbianCE and it is the result of a 5-year research project in the field of Collaborative Network Organisations. The AmbianCE framework has been validated in a Brazilian VBE called Virfebras. A peculiar characteristic of Virfebras is that many of its members are competitors.

Social capital in collaborative networks competitiveness: the case of the Brazilian Wine Industry Cluster

This paper addresses the influence of social capital in collaborative networks. With the social context of collaborative networks becoming increasingly important, research has broadened the traditional concept of competitiveness to include and emphasise ‘soft’ elements, like social capital. The social capital concept can be attained in two different contexts: intra- and inter-groups. The objective of this study is to identify inter-organisational social capital elements and the relationship with collaborative network competitiveness. The idea is to answer some questions such as (1) what are the elements that explain inter-organisational social capital? (2) how are these elements related to competitiveness? (3) what organisational characteristics facilitate social capital formation? A survey was conducted in the enterprises from the Brazilian Wine Industry Cluster. The data were analysed using factorial analysis and bivariate correlations. The results point out three social capital factors that correspond to the social capital dimensions found in literature: structural, relational and cognitive. The research shows that the correlations among social capital dimensions and competitiveness are strong and significant, specially the structural and relational dimensions. Finally, implications for research and managerial practice were discussed.

Collaborative Networks and Social Capital: A Theoretical and Practical Convergence

This paper addresses the issue of social capital analysis for collaborative networks. The objective of the research project is to understand how collaborative networks can be influenced considering the perspective of social capital. Initially, the authors identified and analyzed relevant works that were developed in the collaborative network field, focusing on the social capital approach. Therefore, nineteen papers have been selected from well-known journals basically extracted from the Business Source Premier Database. Thereafter, a tool for analyzing those papers has been developed. During evaluation, the authors considered twenty six aspects that can be divided into two major themes: the methodological and characterization approach and the theory of social capital and collaborative networks. As a result of this work, we conclude that a great variety of techniques to collect information exists, but that the difficulty of measuring social capital continues.

Modeling Performance Indicators' Selection Process For Vo Partners' Suggestions

In the current dynamic world where organizations are inserted in, there is no time to postpone businesses due to the lack of support that helps them to establish the required connections with other organizations agilely. In this context, one of the critical issues is the creation of Virtual Organization, when partners have to be selected. This paper addresses a very closely related issue, which is the selection of the performance indicators that should be applied to drive the partners search. Considering the complexity of this task, this paper presents the process modeling designed to support the user to find appropriated performance indicators that can be used to compare and to suggest organizations that are able to fulfill a business’ requirements.

Collaborative network governance: Understanding Social Capital dimensions

The present paper addresses the issue of Social Capital dimensions considering its application for collaborative network governance. The objective of the project is to understand how collaborative networks can be influenced considering the perspective of Social Capital. Initially, we present the most important Brazilian Wine Cluster, where the present work will be implemented. We defend the importance of linking Social Capital in collaborative networks as an integrator concept. In this sense, a theoretical model to analyze the linking of the Social Capital approach in collaborative networks is presented. In this model, we defend four elements of analysis: identity building, power relations, evaluation process and network performance.

A Framework To Create A Virtual Organization Breeding Environment In The Mould And Die Sector

The effective creation of Virtual Enterprises emerges of a previous work and environment called recently as Virtual Organisations Breeding Environment. The framework here proposed is one of the results of five years research project in the field of Collaborative Network Organisations, This paper describes a framework to create and support the Virtual Enterprises life cycle in the mould and die sector. The framework called AmbianCE was validated in a Brazilian Virtual Organisation Breeding Environment.

A framework to create a virtual organisation breeding environment for small and medium enterprises

This paper describes a framework to create and support the life cycle of Virtual Enterprises (VEs) relying on a Virtual Organisation Breeding Environment (VBE). The proposed framework is the outcome of a five-year research project in the field of collaborative network organisations. Such a framework was developed to be applied to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and was validated in a Brazilian work group called VIRFEBRAS. A peculiar characteristic of VIRFEBRAS is that its members are competitors and work in the mould and die sector. This work proposes the creation of an environment where social capital, competence and the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are developed to facilitate the preparedness of candidate companies aiming to become members of future VEs. This paper is structured as follows: an introduction, the description of the framework to create the VBE, the validation of the framework, the key findings and business impacts and the conclusions.