Definition and classification of collaborative network: MCDM approaches for partner selection problem

Abstract

The quick environment development make impossible that an enterprise, working individually, can respond to market opportunities. For this reason, more and more firms are aware and motivated to improve their offer and competitiveness by means of collaboration, through sharing competencies and resources. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to describe, through a literature review, the key concepts related to a Collaborative Network (CN) and to provide a classification of networks. Furthermore, the key issue of the CN is the selection of the right partners, which is performed based on several, sometimes conflicting, quantitative, and qualitative criteria. Thus, this task is considered, in the literature, as a Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem. Therefore, the second objective of this research is to survey this area by identifying the frequently used criteria, in strategic and tactical management level, as well as the MCDM approaches.