Virtual Enterprise Model Research Articles

The Virtual Enterprise: enterprise transformation enabled by strategic digital acceleration

Purpose The Virtual Enterprise model expands potential for extreme digitalization, extended value chains and intelligent workflows, along with new partnership and ecosystem approaches. Design/methodology/approach Analysis of a new survey of more than 7000 C-suite executives conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) provides new and striking insights into what operational, organizational and cultural environments are most conducive to effective and enduring digital transformation. Findings The Virtual Enterprise re-imagines how and where work is done, re-evaluating the necessity for physical assets, infrastructure and talent. Practical/implications The single most important characteristic of the Virtual Enterprise is “openness”, which brings value at three levels: inside the enterprise, with partners outside the enterprise and with the wider ecosystem. Originality/value The research found that the high technology adopters who focus on “openness” and “ecosystems” enjoy a 40 percent revenue growth performance premium over their advanced competitors.

Reshaping the Role of Destination Management Organizations: Heritage Promotion through Virtual Enterprises—Case Study: Bresciatourism

Cooperation in tourism is considered crucial for sustainable destination promotion, addressing several opportunities to decrease the level of competition among actors to achieve advantages for all. Global markets force rapid, virtual teaming up and high reconfigurability through heavy reliance on information and communications technology in the pursuit of specific market opportunities for a destination’s heritage promotion. In light of a reshaped destination management organization role, this work focuses on temporary cooperation and adapts the dynamic virtual enterprise model to tourism. A case history in Brescia was examined to support the theoretical construct. The resulting conceptual schema highlights the main features of a virtual enterprise in tourism (VEt), the life cycle stages—qualified by dynamic adaptation—and the leadership role of the destination management organizations. In generating a VEt model, four conditions for effectiveness emerge.

Virtual Enterprise for Batik’s Small Medium Enterprises

This study discussed virtual enterprise in Batik’s Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The capacity of SMEs in accessing potential markets was a problem that often faced. There were many SMEs, which have not been able to export products overseas. They only sold their products in the domestic market. Marketing promotion was the cause of recognition and capabilities lacking. In this study discussed about E-commerce for SMEs which applied Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C). This research used several tools for modelling processes which were represented by Use Case Diagrams and Activity Diagrams. The results of this study were the form of an enterprise virtual model that was applied become E-commerce. This e-commerce implemented B2B in two levels of admin system, which were super admin managed by the cooperative service and ordinary admin managed by several local SMEs. The virtual enterprise model, which implemented business to costumer, could be seen through the form of shopping transactions or online trading on websites

An ontology-based multi-agent virtual enterprise system (OMAVE): part 2: partner selection

A virtual enterprise (VE) is a collaboration model between multiple business partners in a value chain. The VE model is particularly feasible and appropriate for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and industrial parks containing multiple SMEs that have different vertical competencies. The VE consortium’s success highly depends on its members. Therefore, it is crucial to select the most appropriate enterprises when forming a VE consortium. In this study, a new multi-agent hybrid partner selection algorithm is developed for application in the development of an ontology-based multi-agent virtual enterprise (OMAVE) system. In this platform, the agent’s interactions are supported by agent ontology, which provides concepts, properties and all message formats for the agents. Different types of agents collaborate and compete with each other so that unqualified or inefficient enterprises are eliminated from the enterprise pool. Only the remaining enterprises would be allowed to enter the negotiation process and propose in the bidding. The agent-based auctioning platform is coupled with a fuzzy–AHP–TOPSIS algorithm to evaluate partners based on their proposals and background. Accordingly, the winning enterprise for each task is identified and the whole project can be accomplished by assigning tasks to the responsible partners. To test and verify the functionality of the developed OMAVE system, a sample module using OMAVE applications and tools was manufactured. The last section of this paper presents the results of this case study, which validate the applicability of the proposed technique.

Virtual Enterprise as a Multi Agent System

This article describes changing customer demands require that enterprises mobilize their resources to quickly develop a suitable product. This is achievable if competing enterprises collaborate to deliver the product. Each of them brings their expertise into the collaboration. This collaboration where each enterprise brings in its core competency is referred to as a virtual enterprise (VE). A construction project is implemented by a team of professionals and an alliance of companies that is formed by consultants who evaluate contractors for specific project tasks. Partners can be represented as multiple agents. Prior evidence of multi-agent system (MAS) model that facilitates formation of VEs is lacking. VE MAS ontology has been designed and used in agent interactions. The model can be used in evaluation and selection process of partners. Delegation of the process to the model, gives partners time to implement the tasks. Partner evaluation and selection problem for building construction projects is solvable if pragmatic scientific approaches are employed with appropriate mathematical models. This article proposed a VE model for evaluating and selecting right partners for building construction projects. The model was used to demonstrate the choice of the most preferred partner. Researchers have not evaluated this model but propose that once in place, it can evaluated against manual selection of potential partners using similar parameters by examining the closeness of the output.

A Study on Operational Model of Container Multi-Modal Transport Virtual Enterprise Based on Multi-Agent Technology

Container Multi-modal Transport is one of Multi-modal Transport organizations that aim at realizing the best benefit of transporting cargoes. As it has remarkable advantages, container Multi-modal Transport has played an important role in international trade. This article put forward the origination model of Container Multi-modal Transport Virtual Enterprise (CMTVE) based on the conception, characteristic and adaptability of Multi-Agent technology, then it expatiated the Operational process of CMTVE. At last, this article built a CMTVE based on Multi-Agent technology to optimize the operational of container Multi-modal Transport, so it can become a flexible, dynamic, high efficient chain of transportation. Thus, this model can offer the operational optimization of container Multi-modal Transport a theory guide.

ABVE-construct: an agent-based virtual entreprise model for civil engineering

Modelling efficient virtual enterprises (VEs) represents a real challenge in the context of dynamic, complex and extending business markets. Among the modelling approaches proposed for VEs, multi-agent systems are more suitable due to their basic characteristics of flexibility, modularity, distributivity as well as some characteristics such as adaptability and learning, that could be added in order to improve the overall VE performance and scalability. The application of VEs and agent-based VEs were proposed for several industrial domains: automotive industry, food industry, electronics and telecommunications, transportation, robotics, for manufacturing and supply chain problems solving. This paper presents a generic framework for virtual enterprises development, VE-Frame, and an agent-based virtual enterprise model, ABVE-Construct, for the civil engineering domain, derived from the VE-Frame. Also, a case study of using the model for a building construction scenario, and the model adaptation options for other domains of applications are discussed.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Modeling and Simulation Applications of Software Agents

The aim of this Special Issue is to introduce to the readers a selection of papers from the 3rd Workshop on Applications of Software Agents - WASA 2013 in the area of agent-based modelling and simulation. WASA'2013 was held in Sinaia, Romania, during October 11-13, 2013. The WASA 2013 workshop was organized within the framework of the 17th International Conference on Theory, Control and Computing - ICSTCC'2013. The aim of the WASA series of workshops is to contribute to the advancement of technologies and applications of software agents' by bridging the gap between the theory and practice of software agents. Fifteen papers were accepted for presentation at WASA'2013. Among them, 3 papers were selected, after further extension and additional review, for inclusion in this Special Issue on Modeling and Applications of Software Agents. The article A Supporting the Evaluation of the Operational Effectiveness of Naval Tasks Based on Agent Simulation by Davide Anghinolfi, Alberto Capogrosso, Massimo Paolucci, and Perra Francesco is in the area of agent-based modelling and simulation. The authors propose an agent-based simulation model denoted as denoted as Operational Evaluator Model, for the multi-dimensional analysis of alternative configurations of military naval units to support the design of naval vessels. After the careful consideration of several existing frameworks for agent-based simulation, the authors propose their own framework denoted as ABSF. The paper contains convincing experimental results obtained by simulation of a specific Anti-surface Warfare use case that support the advantages of ABSF over other agent-based simulation frameworks. The article Formal Modelling and of a Multi-Agent Nano-Robotic Drug Delivery System by Marina Ntika, Petros Kefalas, and Ioanna Stamatopoulou is in the area of agent-based modelling and simulation. The authors propose an agent-based simulation model for targeted drug delivery with the help of nano-robots. The simulation model is developed using X-machines, while the simulation itself was achieved using NetLogo. The paper reports interesting experimental results that were obtain by applying the proposed agent-based simulation model, thus supporting the usefulness of formal multi-agent system for the better understanding of collaborative nano-robotic technologies for drug delivery in unhealthy tissues. The article ABVE-Construct: An Agent-Based Virtual Enterprise Model for Civil Engineering by Mihaela Oprea is in the area of agent-based enterprise modelling. This paper proposes a generic framework for virtual enterprises development denoted as VE-Frame. Based on this framework, a new agent-based virtual enterprise model for the civil engineering domain denoted as ABVE-Construct, is formulated. The ABVE-Construct ontology and design model are developed using OWL and Protege, as well as using Prometheus Design Tool. The proposed framework and model are evaluated by considering a specific case study of a residential building construction task. We would also like to thank all the reviewers for their restless reviewing effort and valuable feedback and all the authors who submitted papers to WASA'2013 and to this Special Issue.

A Multi-agent System Model for Partner Selection Process in Virtual Enterprise

Virtual Enterprise (VE) is a collaboration model between multiple business partners in a value chain. VE information system deals with highly dynamic information from heterogeneous data sources. In order to manage and store dynamic VE information in the database, an ontology based VE model has been developed. To select winner enterprises in VE, a Multi Agent System (MAS) has been developed. Communication and data transition among agents and system entities are based on defined rules in VE ontology model. One of the most important contributions of agents in VE system is in partner selection step of VE formation phase. In this step several agents with different goals and strategies are collaborating and competing each other to win the negotiation procedure or maximize the profit for their assigned enterprise. Different strategies are developed for the agents depending on their appetite for winning the auction against maximizing the profit. Several simulations were run and the results are stored. These results are fed into a neural network in order to predict which enterprise will win the auction and what will be the profit margin. The motivation is to provide a forecasting agent for the customers about the outcomes of the auctions so that they can plan ahead and take the necessary action. Early results indicate such simulated multi-agent VE formations can be used in real systems.

Investigating virtual enterprise models: literature review and empirical findings

Despite the increasing academic interest in the virtual enterprise (VE), there are still two main lacunae in our understanding: conceptualisation of VE models and empirical research investigating real VE cases. This paper seeks to address these two gaps. In relation to the first, the paper provides a systematic literature review, showing six shared issues in the VE research (which may be considered the common foundations of the theoretical concept of the VE) and five non-shared issues (which may be considered as a framework to identify different forms of VE). On the basis of shared and non-shared issues, two VE types are identified (the hierarchical and the holarchical). In the hierarchical VE, a leader company acts as a product integrator and is responsible for the final product/service. In the holarchical VE, partners act as a single business entity and the self-organisation approach is the main coordination mechanism. The second gap is addressed through a questionnaire survey to explore the virtualisation process in 18 Italian companies participating in a network of firms characterised by a set of temporary peer relationships oriented to specific projects in which collaborative relationships are continuously formed and dismantled. Comparing the literature and the empirical evidence, a hybrid VE model some way between the hierarchical and holarchical models is evident. The hybrid model shares the relationships among peers with the holarchical model, and the presence of a coordinating firm with the hierarchical model. Similarities and dissimilarities of the above models are discussed together and future research directions are noted.

Custom-Made Cloud Enterprise Architecture for Small Medium and Micro Enterprises

Small, Medium, and Micro enterprises (SMMEs) usually do not have adequate funds to acquire ICT infrastructure and often use cloud computing. In this paper, the authors discuss the implementation of virtual enterprises (VE) to enable SMMEs to respond quickly to customers’ demands and market opportunities. The virtual enterprise model is based on the ability to create temporary co-operations and realize the value of a short term business opportunity that the partners cannot fully capture on their own. The model of virtual enterprise is made possible through virtualisation technology, which is a building block of cloud computing. To achieve a common goal, enterprises integrate resources, organisational models, and process models. Through the virtual business operating environment offered by cloud computing, the SMMEs are able to increase productivity and gain competitive advantage due to the cost benefit incurred. In this paper, the authors propose a virtual enterprise enabled cloud enterprise architecture based on the concept of virtual enterprise at both business and technology levels. The business level comprises of organisational models, process models, skills, and competences whereas the technology level comprises of IT resources.

Group Negotiation Decision Method and its Application based on Multi-Issues Combined Programming for High-tech Virtual Enterprise

The negotiation goal for High-tech Virtual Enterprise is close relation with participants negotiation behavior, which also is impacted by environment constrict and member enterprise strategies among negotiation process. Multi-Agent negotiation process is formalized described for High-tech Virtual Enterprise and combined programming model for Multi-part and Multi-Issue negotiation and decision are established including of the general programming model and particular programming model, by which united protocol zone and basic negotiation value is ensured from Multi-Agent negotiation power degree, by which united negotiation equilibrium value from Multi-Agent adopting strategies, and finally optimal estate of united utility and equilibrium situation of protocol result are received. The empirical results show Multipart and Multi-Issue negotiation and decision based on double programming is the important approach for conflict management of High-tech Virtual Enterprise, its acting mechanism is analyzed and operation model is established, which is the effective means for coordinating with collaboration relations among participants, reducing conflict consumption and realizing alliance targets.

Research on the Optimization Method of Virtual Enterprise’s Task Scheduling Problems in Aluminum Industry

Traditional research on production scheduling in aluminum industry, aimed to certain production process, simply pursued the output as the highest aim, scheduled based on experience, so that the result of scheduling cannot reach the global optimization, and cannot realize production scheduling and resource allocation with the aim of optimal energy consumption, resulting in the waste of energy. Taken the minimal sum of energy consumption in production, transport and stock as objective function and integrated with enterprise’s experiences in production, the article establishes a model of virtual enterprise’s task scheduling in aluminum industry and a hybrid distributed particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is proposed to solve the problem. Finally, simulation experiment is carried out using industrial data and the result shows the optimized scheduling method has obvious optimal effect on reducing scheduling time, optimizing allocation of resources and so on, and thus the energy saving and consumption reducing purpose are obtained.

ONTOLOGY-BASED DISTRIBUTED CASE-BASED REASONING IN VIRTUAL ENTERPRISES

Given the advent of knowledge-based economies and virtual-enterprise business models, enterprises get the knowledge not only from themselves but also from others. Distributed case-based reasoning systems (DCBRS) play important roles in knowledge-driven virtual enterprises by supporting knowledge sharing. This study develops a novel mechanism for ontology-based distributed case-based reasoning using ontology and a proposed multistage algorithm to effectively support knowledge sharing within a virtual enterprise environment. Tasks involved in this study are as follows: (i) design an ontology-based distributed case-based reasoning architecture and procedure, (ii) develop techniques related to the ontology-based distributed case-based reasoning, and (iii) implement an ontology-based distributed case-based reasoning mechanism. Developing methods associated with ontology-based distributed case-based reasoning involves the definition and representation of a user query model, definition and representation of a knowledge case model, definition and establishment of knowledge case index structure, and development of a distributed knowledge case retrieval and knowledge case adaptation methods. Study results will facilitate heterogeneous knowledge sharing among enterprises participating in a virtual enterprise.

Environments for Virtual Enterprise Integration

The Virtual Enterprise model relies on dynamically reconfigurable collaborative networks, with extremely high performances, strongly time-oriented while highly focused on cost and quality, in permanent alignment with the market, and strongly supported by information and communication technology. Networking and reconfiguration dynamics are the main characteristics of this model, which claim for enabling and supporting environments, assuring cost-effective integration in useful time and preventing the risk of leakage of private information about products or processes. Some existing technologies and Internet-based environments can partially support this organizational model, but the reconfiguration dynamics can only be assured by environments able to manage, control, and enable virtual enterprise creation/operation/reconfiguration. Several environments are introduced in the article, and particular focus is given to the Market of Resources, an environment coping with the requirements of the Virtual Enterprise model.

Game theoretic enterprise management in industrial collaborative networks with multi-agent systems

Nowadays, virtual enterprise (VE) is an important paradigm of business management in an agile environment. VE exists in several kinds of business organization through multi-layered product flows. It is obvious that a mechanism, through which these different enterprises can be integrated together, is required for the better management of VE. In this paper, we focus on the negotiation process in VE formulation as a basic research to clarify its effective management. Each enterprise in VE is defined as a software agent with multi-utilities, and three types of primitive business models are targeted, such as the vertically integrated business model, horizontally specialized business model and hybrid business model. We develop a three-layered VE model for computer simulation so as to clarify VE formulation dynamism with the proposed negotiation mechanism.

Ahp model for the selection of partner companies in virtual enterprises

Rising product variety and complexity, shorter time frames to respond, and the continual need to gain new capabilities through innovativeness force the trend of outsourcing to be replaced by strategic alliances, where enterprises or individuals work together towards a common goal and share their responsibilities as well as their profits. Recent developments in information technology have enabled relatively inexpensive, reliable and fast networking to support such alliances in real time. In this context, the virtual enterprise (VE) represents an appropriate cooperation alternative and competitive advantage for the enterprises. VE is a temporary network of independent companies -- suppliers, customers, even rivals -- linked by information technology (IT) to share skills, costs and access to one another’s markets. In this emerging business model of virtual enterprise, the decision support functionality, which addresses issues such as partner company selection, is an important domain to be studied. In this paper, we propose an analytic hierarchy process model to contribute in the selection of the partner companies in the virtual enterprises. A case example is also covered to validate the feasibility of the adoption of the model in virtual enterprise situations.

VirtuE: a formal model of virtual enterprises for information markets

A vital part of a modern economy is an information market. In this market, information products are being traded in countless ways. Information is bought, modified, integrated, incorporated into other products, and then sold again. Often, the manufacturing of an information product requires the collaboration of several participants. A virtual enterprise is a community of business entities that collaborate on the manufacturing of complex products. This collaboration is often ad hoc, for a specific product only, after which the virtual enterprise may dismantle. The virtual enterprise paradigm is particularly appealing for modeling collaborations for manufacturing information products, and in this paper we present a new model, called VirtuE, for modeling such activities. VirtuE has three principal components. First, it defines a distributed infrastructure with concepts such as members, products, inventories, and production plans. Second, it defines transactions among members, to enable collaborative production of complex products. Finally, it provides means for the instrumentation of enterprises, to measure their performance and to govern their behavior.

A virtual enterprise based information system architecture for the tourism industry

As information and information systems become increasingly valuable and information technology advances at a fast pace, only creative and innovative companies will be able to survive the competition in the new millennium, by utilising the emerging information technologies and innovative management methods. We propose an Integrative Information Architecture (IIA), which provides a dynamic, flexible and innovative strategic and tactical management to the integration of business management systems by using the conceptual model of virtual enterprise (VE). In general, VE provides a comprehensive guide to the key elements of successful cross-organisational integration and collaborative e-commerce by highlighting business needs, information technologies, and management strategies. In our study, the application of VE is for integrating employees, business process and resources within the tourism industry. We also explored the potentials of applying IIA to contemporary tour companies for developing the cross-organisational tourism system.

A neural network model for the assessment of partners’ performance in virtual enterprises

In response to increasing international competition, enterprises have been investigating new ways of cooperating with each other to cope with today’s unpredictable market behaviour. Advanced developments in information & communication technology (ICT) enabled reliable and fast cooperation to support real-time alliances. In this context, the virtual enterprise (VE) represents an appropriate cooperation alternative and competitive advantage for the enterprises. VE is a temporary network of independent companies or enterprises that can quickly bring together a set of core competencies to take advantage of market opportunity. In this emerging business model of VE, the key to enhancing the quality of decision making in the partner companies’ performance evaluation function is to take advantage of the powerful computer-related concepts, tools and technique that have become available in the last few years. This paper attempts to introduce a neural network model, which is able to contribute to the extrapolation of the probable outcomes based on available pattern of events in a virtual enterprise. Quality, delivery and progress were selected as determinant factors effecting the performance assessment. Considering the features of partner performance assessment and neural network models, a back-propagation neural network that includes a two hidden layers was used to evaluate the partner performance.