An estimation model for business benefits in horizontal collaborative networks

Abstract

Nowadays, the advantages of virtual enterprises and collaborative networks are well known by scientists and professional communities. Despite the advantages, only a few networks continue running businesses after stopping the governmental subsides. One of the reasons is the lack of a model that evaluates the benefit from the firm's point of view. The objective of this work is to develop a model that estimates the business benefits in horizontal collaborative networks. We propose a method for evaluating the benefits for a firm to be enrolled in a collaborative network. This method can also be extended to the selection of partner. The approach is based on a combination of a product realisation graph and core competencies model. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.