Submitted by: Submitted by Andeushi
Views: 325
Words: 1449
Pages: 6
Category: Science and Technology
Date Submitted: 06/07/2012 09:08 AM
The Virtual Enterprise
Definition
The virtual enterprise is based on the ability to create temporary co-operations and to realize the value of a short business opportunity that the partners cannot (or can, but only to lesser extent) capture on their own.
Key Characteristics of the Virtual Enterprise
The purpose of the virtual enterprise, as defined here, is to provide a new solution for an unpredicted opportunity. Therefore, the enterprise is more of an action, rather than an institution. The virtual enterprise is nimble: quick to grasp the new opportunity and create the solution. This feature leads to three characteristics of virtual enterprises:
* In the virtual enterprise, value is created, not added.
* The virtual enterprise is a temporary co-operation to achieve objectives.
* The virtual enterprise facilitates permanent restructuring.
Thus, the virtual enterprise is a dynamic concept. In other words, the change processes over time of its temporary structures distinguish the virtual enterprise. Dynamic thinking cannot be grounded in stable structures. The concept of the virtual enterprise, therefore, leads to observable patterns of change over time, or routines of change. Thus, the concept of the virtual enterprise raises several questions about change.
Three routines of change seem to have strong impact on the success of the virtual enterprise: 1) customer interaction, which links the virtual enterprise to the changing business opportunity, 2) the routine of restructuring, which permanently (re-)creates the virtual operation, and 3) the evolution of the network.
Virtual Enterprises - Applications
Application 1: The virtual factory in the Region of Lace Constance
The objective: In a project called 'Virtual Factory', more than thirty companies in the Lake Constance region joined to develop new entrepreneurial solutions to gain competitive advantages for their industrial region through dynamic cooperation.
The background: Production in...