Information Systems Engineering in Complex Environments

Abstract

Much of the research on Performance Management (PM) for collaborative enterprises (CE) is based on qualitative considerations and does not consider the impact of modern Information Systems both on the collaborative/competitive dimension of firms and on the PM process. The peculiarities of the different types of CEs are not clearly addressed and managed in literature, and the performance measurements are often oriented to specific aspects rather than to assess the overall quality of business. Moreover, in several proposals, the skills and the time required to the managers of CEs are far from those available in the largest part of existing SMEs. In this scenario the objective of the paper is to discuss how conceptual modeling techniques, and namely ontologies and performance modeling, can contribute to better manage collaborative enterprises.