This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th IFIP WG 5.5 Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises, PRO-VE 2011, held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in October 2011. The 61 revised papers presented were carefully selected from numerous submissions. They provide a comprehensive overview of recent advances in various collaborative network (CN) domains and their applications with a particular focus on adaptation of the networks and their value creation, specifically emphasizing topics related to evolution from social networking to collaborative networks; social capital; value chains;...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th IFIP WG 5.5 Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises, PRO-VE 2012, held in Bournemouth, UK, in October 2012. The 61 revised papers presented were carefully selected from numerous submissions. They provide a comprehensive overview of identified challenges and recent advances in various collaborative network (CN) domains and their applications with a particular focus on the Internet of Services. The papers are organized in topical sections on service enhanced products; service composition; collaborative ecosystems; platform...

Collaborative Networks for a Sustainable World Aiming to reach a sustainable world calls for a wider collaboration among multiple stakeholders from different origins, as the changes needed for sustainability exceed the capacity and capability of any individual actor. In recent years there has been a growing awareness both in the political sphere and in civil society including the bu- ness sectors, on the importance of sustainability. Therefore, this is an important and timely research issue, not only in terms of systems design but also as an effort to b- row and integrate contributions from...

Industries and particularly the manufacturing sector have been facing difficult challenges in a context of socio-economic turbulence characterized by complexity as well as the speed of change in causal interconnections in the socio-economic environment. In order to respond to these challenges companies are forced to seek new technological and organizational solutions.

In this context two main characteristics emerge as key properties of a modern automation system - agility and distribution. Agility because systems need not only to be flexible in order to adjust to a number...