Developing a framework to establish collaborative enterprise networks

Collaborative approaches are gaining acceptance as a vehicle to develop technology. Throughout industry, various collaborative models are being used in order to successfully unite the capabilities of multiple organisations for the purpose of developing services and products. A problem exists however. Currently, there is a limited understanding of collaborative best practice, as various collaborative models are employed within different industry contexts. This paper addresses that problem. Through a review of extant literature in the areas of collaboration, systems thinking and operational research, four key elements of collaboration are identified; purpose, partner selection, structure and governance. These key elements form the basis for an assessment of current approaches to collaborative technology development in industry. Four case studies are presented exploring two different industry sectors - aerospace and renewables. Each case study examines a collaborative approach to technology development at differing stages of the development lifecycle. Common principles are drawn from both the literature and case studies and a framework for best practice in establishing a collaborative enterprise network (CEN) is presented.