Aricon initiative: Barriers in adopting the virtual enterprise approach in the new product development (NPD) context

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the ARICON1 project and some of its findings to date. ARICON aims to develop a readiness assessment tool and methodology, for evaluating companies' capability to enter and peiform in a Virtual Enterprise arrangement. This paper reports on the empirical stage of the project, namely the elicitation of typical problems and barriers for co-operation in a Virtual Enterprise. These problems have been collected through an iterative process, in which questionnaires and interactive workshops and seminars have been used. The participating companies included a large Aerospace and Defence manufacturer, a large automotive manufacturer alld 9 SMEs in the aerospace, energy, telecommunications and mechanical sectors. © 2004 by Springer Science+Business Media New York.