Lecture 1

Question 1

Business Networking (Osterle, et al)

Answer 1

The new economy that can be seen as the coordination of processes within and across companies. More precisely, the management of IT-enabled relationships between internal and external business partners.

Question 2

Smart Business Network (van Heck & Vervest)

Answer 2

Outperforms other firms and networks using IT enabled networks (information and communication technologies).

Question 3

Enterprise Service Bus

Answer 3

The conceptualisation of what firms share in order to do electronic data exchange.

Question 4

Business Network

Answer 4

A set of more than two firms that provides services to customers and uses services from suppliers to operate as one firm that is owned by different owners and controlled by different ‘operators’/management teams.

Question 5

FIRM level analysis (Straub et al.)

Answer 5

• Investing in IT to connect internal and external processes.
• Application portfolio.
• Networkability of the firm.
• Firm performance.

Question 6

NETWORK level analysis (Proven et al.)

Answer 6

• Investing in IT to connect internal and external processes.
• Business bus to connect firms in the network.
• Networkability (connectability) of the network.
• Network performance.

Question 7

Smart Network (van Heck and Vervest)

Answer 7

A network that wins (outperforms) from companies. Being smart is the new business network approach, this includes:
1. Provide complex services.
2. Demand driven networks.
3. Distributed control.
4. Sharing of Information & IT infrastructure (between firms/network/customer).
Organizations must move from a stable and slow-moving business network to an open digital platform where business is conducted across a rapidly formed network with anyone.

Question 8

Traditional Business Network Approach (van Heck and Vervest)

Answer 8

Products and services: Relative simple, unbundled, and slowly delivered products and services.
Value creation: Supply chains with long term connected relationships.
Coordination and control: Hierarchical and central control and decision making.
Information sharing: Information sharing with direct business partners.
Infrastructure: Actor platforms with information silos and systems.

Question 9

New Business Network Approach (van Heck and Vervest)

Answer 9

Products and services: Relative complex, bundled, and fast delivered products and services.
Value creation: Demand networks with quick connect and disconnect relationships.
Coordination and control: Network orchestration with distributed control and decision making.
Information sharing: Information sharing over and with network partners.
Infrastructure: Network platform with networked business operating system.

Question 10

Smartness (van Heck and Vervest)

Answer 10

The network of cooperating businesses can create better results than other, less smart, business networks or other forms of business arrangement.

Question 11

Networkability (van Heck and Vervest)

Answer 11

The internal and external ability to cooperate as well as the ability to rapidly and efficiently establish, conduct, and develop IT-supported business relationships. Networkability leads to substantial business advantages. Where complex, bundled and quickly delivered products are provided with the help of combining business network insights with telecommunication capabilities.
Network structure influences network functioning and (eventually) network performance.

Question 12

Smart Network (Multiasistencia)

Answer 12

Dynamic, rapidly formed network.

• Operates value chain activities simultaneously across multiple firms.
• Organizes data flows instead of information flows.
• Has higher network horizon (more advantageous network position up to a saturation point).
• Can quickly connect and disconnect to actors in the network.
• Offers pick (jump into action), plug (combine rapidly) & play (specific situation) (networkability)
• Embedded business/network logic (specific capabilities per firm embedded, network orchestrated, e.g. each participant becomes a smart insect in an intelligent swarm).

Question 13

Connecting

Answer 13

Investing in ‘becoming part of a network’. This means implementing/creating resources that enable plug and play.

Question 14

Disconnecting

Answer 14

Removing resources, connections, processes and activities that are no longer useful.

Question 15

Plug and play in the network processes

Answer 15

• If required by a customer request
• If allocated by a network orchestrator (business logic)
• Thie plug/play = ‘within seconds, and very often without the customer/network partners knowing which firms is activated.

Question 16

Network modularity

Answer 16

Decomposition of a system by grouping elements into a smaller number of subsystems with rules governing the architecture for mixing and matching components. Modularity bring the benefits of versatility (diverse set of products that an organisation can produce) and agility (the ability to respond quickly to fulfil an unpredictable customer order), while delivering within the boundaries of allowed value chain total costs and lead times.

Question 17

Smart Business Networking

Answer 17

Consists of a set of inter-organizational relationships between a local actor and independent external actors who are closely linked and are working together to create value for the customer.
- Outperforming competing networks.
- Rapidly pick, plug, and play business processes.
- Abilities to:
+ quickly connect - disconnect to actors in the network.
+ select & execute business processes from the network firms: (=functioning)
+ use decision rules and embedded network logic.

Question 18

Assess smartness of a network

Answer 18

Finding the right amount of data (not) to be shared in shared ledgers. Reflected in the ability to quickly realize “scenarios in which business is conducted in a flexible business network that executes transactions by firms that participate in the network”.

Question 19

Adaptability framework

Answer 19

• Automatic responses/assimilation (standard + business reaction as usual)
• Accommodation (incremental innovation) = a series of small improvements to an existing product.
• Environmental enactment (create new condition or new domains of actions)

Question 20

Old/Traditional network approach

Answer 20

Information silos residing either in different places in the organization as ‘islands’ or in two different orgranizations. These actors focus on their direct partners and are not able to have the end-to-end management of processes running across many different organizations in many different forms.

Question 21

New netowrk approach

Answer 21

Based on linking partners through linked processes but allowing individual execution according to those processes (shared business logic). The network separates process from execution. Allowing each participant to execute in its own way according to this logic. This means that to be a member of the network, an organization must be able to absorb the shared logic and execute accordingly (own business logic).

Question 22

Own business logic

Answer 22

An organization must be able to absorb the shared logic and execute accordingly. Can be enabled by BOS.

Question 23

BOS

Answer 23

Business Operating System

Question 24

Logistic layer (physical layer)

Answer 24

Representing the logistic processes between the firms (actors) in the network. –> day to day logistics and uses data (private data).

Question 25

Transaction layer (information layer)

Answer 25

Represents the transactions between firms, stored in information systems (within firms) or shared ledgers (shared between firms).

Question 26

Business operating layer (logic layer)

Answer 26

Includes the business logic. –> Set of software running to become active after a certain trigger. It’s a set of smart contracts shared across the network members.

Question 27

Network Business Operating System (BOS)

Answer 27

Resolves the problem of information silos by coupling of underlying systems, which are connected together in a business operating layer. This layer allows process execution, dynamic behaviour and management from a distance from the underlying application systems.

Question 28

Network horizon

Answer 28

The number of nodes that an actor can ‘see’ from a specific position in the network. Firms with a higher network horizon achieved higher performance.

Question 29

How to achieve a higher network horizon

Answer 29

• Choose your network strategy instead of focusing on internal capabilities (orchestrated or contributed).
• Identify relevant networks.

Question 30

Network orchestrator

Answer 30

Connecting otherwise disconnected parts of the network.

Question 31

Traditional network

Answer 31

• All firms have limited horizons.

- Homogeneous network.

Question 32

Developing network

Answer 32

• Some smart firms have large horizons.

- Heterogeneous network.

Question 33

Smart network

Answer 33

• All firms have large horizons.

- Homogeneous network.

Question 34

Relationship networkability of a firm and firm performance?

Answer 34

Networkability is seen when firms start to think in network terms instead of supply chain terms. A modest network horizon can sustain a competitive advantage for some time. Network horizon is important for the firm performance. Firms with a higher network horizon achieved higher performance.

Question 35

How would you analyze the network in order to predict network development and performance?

Answer 35

Behaviour research, trys to predict by doing analysis. Developing hypothesis, etc.

Question 36

How would you determine requirement in order to design and develop solutions for a network?

Answer 36

Design research.

Question 37

Which indicators (measures) are used to assess the ‘structure’ of a network?

Answer 37

Number of firms, number of relationships.

Question 38

How can a new intermediary in a network (like the CareAuction intermediary in the maternity care sector) change the structure of a network?

Answer 38

Use of robots for bidding, searching filters, allocation robot.