Agile Network Businesses: Collaboration, Coordination, and Competitive Advantage

The emerging possibilities of information technology and data communication, the globalization of markets, and the ongoing specialization of firms have paved the way for network enterprises as an organizational model of collaboration and coordination across loosely connected individual companies. This book explores the varous types of business networks and explains the underlying technology used to create them. It covers customer newtorks, supply chain networks, manufacturing networks, and aggregator networks. Supporting technology includes enterprise process management, component architectures, and web services. The book also covers systems science to give readers a theoretical background.