## 4 Value System Alignment Analysis in CNO Management Practices
### In the Creation of Virtual Organizations  
During \"the formation of goal-oriented networks, which typically assume the form of either a short-term or long-term VO\" [21], the selection of adequate partners represents \"a crucial step for  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{p{142.3 pt} p{142.3 pt} p{142.3 pt}} \hline \hline
**Phase/CNO** & **Virtual Organization (VO)** & **Virtual Breeding Environments (VBE)** \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Creation} & For partners’ selection: Select the set of partners that have the potential of working well together, since their value systems are aligned. & An assessment can be performed when the VBE is first established or each time a new member is added to the VBE. However, this can also be done during the operation phase. \\ \cline{2-3}  & To support conflict resolution: In case of conflicts between members, identify which set of incompatible values potentiate the conflict. & To support conflict resolution: To improve VBE’s membership experience. E.g., identify the set of members that work well together and the pairs of members that will potentially generate conflicts if they work together. \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Evolution} & To study the impact of the admission of new partners and changes in network composition, in terms of value systems alignment. & To assess the alignment between the value system of each new candidate member and the value system of the current VBE (although this can be supported by the mechanism foreseen for the operation phase). \\ \cline{1-1} \cline{2-3}  & & \\ \cline{1-1} \cline{2-3}  & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 3: Potential application of Value System Alignment Analysis in each life-cycle phase.  
the success of these networks\" [46]. Often, such networks are composed of members of the VBE and also of entities related to the customer (in case co-innovation is pursued) and local suppliers (customer's-related network), materializing the concepts of _glocal_ enterprise and co-creation.  
Due to the large diversity and heterogeneity of organizations present in the global market, the VOs creation deals with many challenges, including identifying a suitable set of partners, building trust, making an adequate division of responsibilities and rights, promoting a cooperation spirit among partners, achieving agreements on working principles, and establishing some base commonality on concepts, models and infrastructures.  
At the VO creation stage, the VO planner typically determines the set of lists of potential members to form the VO (according to the required competences), i.e., a list of potential consortia. To select the best consortium out of this list, one criterion can be the analysis of the alignment of the value systems among the potential partners (i.e., organizations that satisfy base requirements in terms of needed competencies, availability, etc.). Therefore, for each set of potential VO members:  
1. Calculate the Network Value System Alignment level. This value is used in the risk level estimation, since the higher is the alignment level, the lower is the estimated risk level.
2. Build the aggregate Organizations' core-values map (a map resulted from the insertion of the influence relationships between the core-values on the Organizations' core-value map). This map will allow the identification of the synergies between members, i.e., positive impacts, and the conflicts between their values.  
The VO planner may then select the most suitable group of partners to constitute the VO consortium based on the obtained values.