Current trends in modeling inter‐organizational cooperation

Abstract

PurposeModern enterprises face a strong economical pressure to increase competitiveness, to operate on a global market, and to engage in alliances of several kinds. In order to meet the requirements and challenges of participating in such alliances, companies must be able to cooperate effectively and efficiently. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some major directions in inter‐organizational cooperation.Design/methodology/approachIn order to cope with the challenges of inter‐organizational cooperation, to share innovative research issues and to facilitate profound discussions about them, the authors organized a series of workshops on Modeling Inter‐Organizational Systems (MIOS‐CIAO!) starting at the annual OTM Federated Conference and Continuing at the Annual CAiSE Conference. This paper summarizes the results of the workshops.FindingsThis paper provides an overview of what has been established and what is going on regarding the cooperation of enterprises in networks. The focus has been on the modeling of cooperation, from the business level down to the implementation level.Practical implicationsThis overview is a useful source of knowledge for those who want to have a quick insight in the relevant aspects of cooperation, and in many well‐known modeling approaches and techniques. It is also an inspiring source for those who want to investigate yet unsolved or unsatisfactorily solved problems. Although developments, both in theory and in practice, will go on, no landslides are expected. Particularly for practice, the value of this report will therefore last for a considerable time.Originality/valueSeveral core notions in the area of inter‐organizational cooperation are clarified, such as collaboration, cooperation, enterprise network, choreography, and orchestration. The whole process of developing or investigating an enterprise network is covered.

Comparison of Supply Chain Process Models based on Service-oriented Architecture

“…To do so, it is necessary to depict the internal activities of an organization and the interaction between business partners, which are known as process choreography and service orchestration, respectively (Albani & Dietz, 2009). Regarding the ability to meet the requirement of modeling the SC process, the aforementioned reference models are compared with each other and summarized in Table 2.…”

Proactive inventory policy intervention to mitigate risk within cooperative supply chains

“…There is an increasing level of information sharing among supply chain partners (Albani & Dietz, 2009) and (Goswami et al, 2013). When operational information about key parameters (e.g., inventory level, yield rate) is shared, the customer can establish his own policies in accordance with an acceptance risk level.…”

“…Recent literature has begun to study collaboration among supply chain partners. Albani & Dietz (2009) examine the increasing trend in inter-organizational cooperation and information sharing within modern supply chains. Strong economic pressures due to competitiveness, globalization of sales and sourcing, technological innovations and shorter product lead times and life cycles are changing the way companies are doing business.…”

“…In such friendly contexts, information sharing is more forthcoming and, thus, application of the proposed strategy may be feasible. Further examples of inter-organizational information sharing in modern supply chains have been presented as well (Albani & Dietz, 2009) and (Goswami et al, 2013).…”

“…In the past, supply chain partners have been reluctant to share operational information and, thus, inventory risk mitigation has been done in isolation using practices such as safety stock. However, recently there are increasing cooperation and information sharing in supply chains (Albani & Dietz, 2009) and (Goswami et al, 2013). When operational information about key parameters (e.g., inventory level, yield rate) is shared with a partner, he can be more proactive in establishing his own inventory risk control policies in accordance with an acceptance risk level.…”