A qualitative approach to assess the alignment of Value Systems in collaborative enterprises networks

Collaborative enterprises networks are composed of heterogeneous and autonomous enterprises, which are often geographically distributed. As such, it is natural that each enterprise has its own set of values and preferences and as a result, conflicts among partners might emerge due to some values misalignment. Therefore, tools to support the analysis of Value Systems and their alignment in a collaborative context are relevant to improve the network management. Since a Value System reflects the set of values and preferences of an actor, which are cognitive issues, a cognitive analysis approach based on fuzzy causal maps is introduced. A set of qualitative assessment methods are designed to properly capture and integrate multiple perspectives about the concept of Value Systems alignment, in order to improve the identification and assessment of Value Systems misalignments in the context of collaborative enterprises networks. A web based tool to support these qualitative models and methods in a integrated way is used in a case study. Finally, experimental results are presented and discussed.