Title: Increasing collaboration preparedness and performance through VO inheritance

Authors: Iris Karvonen, Iiro Salkari, Martin Ollus

Addresses: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT Industrial Systems, P.O. Box 1000, 02044 VTT, Finland. ' VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT Industrial Systems, P.O. Box 1000, 02044 VTT, Finland. ' VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT Industrial Systems, P.O. Box 1000, 02044 VTT, Finland

Abstract: Virtual Organisations (VOs) are created from a collaboration network or a VO Breeding Environment (VBE) to serve a specific task. In addition to the task-based value, the VO and its participants gain valuable experience and create other types of common assets. This achieved value is often unsaved and unidentified. This paper proposes an approach to preserve the common VO experience and other assets by applying a practice called |VO inheritance|. VO inheritance aims to enrich collaboration network assets, thus improving the preparedness of the VBE for business opportunities. Here, the added value (or the contents of the VO inheritance) is called |VO heritage|. The paper identifies the different forms and components of VO heritage and discusses the inheritance mechanisms and processes. The identification uses previous developments of the |lessons learned| in the project management field and a collection of views of the Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) operating in collaborative networks.

Keywords: virtual organisations breeding environment; VO inheritance; collaboration preparedness; task-based values; common assets; achieved values; business opportunities; added value; VO heritage; project management; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; services management; operations management; knowledge management; KM; collaborative networks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2010.031955

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2010 Vol.6 No.3, pp.293 - 312

Published online: 03 Mar 2010 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article