NEGOTIATION METHODS FOR COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITIES IN NETWORK ENTERPRISES

This paper provides a collaboration support for small and medium enterprises within a Network Enterprises which cannot or do not want to fulfill a major contract alone. In that case, in order to better meet a higher external demand, the managers are willing to subcontract parts of their contracts even to competitors. This approach is illustrated by a business-to-business interaction, being proposed a scenario where partners are autonomous gas stations grouped in a virtual enterprise (VE). In such a VE, we present a schematic example of a collaboration process using negotiation and coordination mechanisms that we proposed in this paper.