No abstract

E-commerce enables new kinds of business models to coordinate a value chain. Coordination of the value chain can be accomplished using direct communication or with the help of intermediaries such as brokers, dealers and auctions. The role of electronic intermediaries is becoming increasingly more important. The introduction of new business models in a value chain is a cumbersome process, due to the complexity of the value chain, unclear implications, different goals and interests of the stakeholders and unclear business models. Therefore, there is a need for a business engineering methodology that supports the design and development of new business models by helping the identification of these new business models and by providing insight into the implications of these business models. A business engineering methodology is presented that supports the identification and evaluation of various alternative value chain configurations. The goal of this methodology is to give stakeholders insight into their current, and possible alternative, situations by means of visualization, to evaluate the added value of business models using simulation and to gain experience with the new business models using gaming.

Componeni-Based Development (CEO) ond Web Services (U?, are today widely used for building flexible eiite~prise-scale systems organized in a Service-Orierrted Architecture (SOA). In order to gain ihe full benefts ofthe enrergirig techriolog)~ and standards, an effective approach for modeling aiid desigriiiig ihis colnp/ex dislribrrled cornputirig model is required Ciwreiif efforts in this direction are much behind the technology ones. This paper presents an approach to SOA modeling aiid design bosed on the concept of service conipo~ient and standard L'ML modeling C O I~S~I U C I S .The inlerjace of a seivice coinpoiieirl goes well bgarid the list of operation signatures to specfi the complete contract between the service provider and consumer. 7'he paper defiles service cornpoiienls of d~fferenl types, scope aiid granulariy andputs thein in the coritext of a model-driven design approach to provide bi-direction01 traceability between busiiiess requirentertls and sofht'are oriifocts.

Validation within design science research in Information Systems (DSRIS) is much debated. The relationship of validation to artifact evaluation is still not clear. This chapter aims at elucidating several components of DSRIS in relation to validation. The role of theory and theorizing are an important starting point, because there is no agreement as to what types of theory should be produced. Moreover, if there is a theoretical contribution, then there needs to be clear guidance as to how the designed artifact and its evaluation are related to the theory and its validation. The epistemological underpinnings of DSRIS are also open to different alternatives, including positivism, interpretivism, and pragmatism, which affect the way that the validation strategy is conceived, and later on, accepted or rejected. The type of reasoning guiding a DSRIS endeavor, whether deductive, inductive, or abductive, should also be considered as it determines the fundamental logic behind any research validation. Once those choices are in place, artifact evaluation may be carried out, depending on the type of artifact and the type of technique available. Finally, the theoretical contribution may be validated from a formative (process-oriented) or summative (product-oriented) perspective.

Collaboration Engineering is an approach to create sustained collaboration support by designing collaborative work practices for high-value recurring tasks, and transferring those designs to practitioners to execute for themselves without ongoing support from collaboration professionals. A key assumption in this approach is that we can predictably design collaboration processes. In this paper we explore this assumption to understand whether collaboration can, in fact, be designed, and elaborate on the role of thinkLets in the engineering of collaborative work practices. ThinkLets are design patterns for collaborative interactions.