E-Collaboration: A Dynamic Enterprise Model

Abstract

Over the last 10 years or so, we have been witnessing a major paradigm shift from the information age to the relationship age (see Table 1). According to Galbreath (2002), the relationship age is truly about the value of the relationships a firm maintains and manages. Customers, employees, suppliers and partners all contribute synergistically to the economic output of the firm. Ashkenas, Ulrich, Todd, and Kerr (1995) put it more formally by saying that many organizations were faced with a rate of change that exceeded their capability to respond, and that they had to attempt to retool their organization in order to meet an entirely new set of criteria for success. Hence, a firm carrying out business in the Relationship Age is essentially focusing on improving one or more of the success factors such as speed of execution, process and product flexibility, knowledge integration, and ability to innovate new and profitable processes, products, or services (Ashkenas et al., 1995).