2008 Smart Business Networks

Dates: May 19-23, 2008
Proposal Deadline: December 1, 2007
Location:Beijing, China
Website: http://ocs.sfu.ca/erim/index.php/SBNi/2008/schedConf/cfp

Companies are increasingly organizing themselves as part of a dynamic network rather than as an island in a static supply chain. Digital technologies enable organizations to create value through the novel combination of information aggregation, information synthesis and information analysis. This trend, in combination with the reduction of interaction costs and the development of quickconnect capabilities facilitating easy and fast activation and deactivation of interorganisational information systems, leads to the increased use of interfirm networks. Smartness emerges when these interfirm networks embed business rules within their primary business processes. This will have a significant impact on the organization of the firm, on how the firm serves its customer and on how a firm can stay ahead of its competitors. The design, governance and information systems of the smart business network, rather than the individual smart business, will increasingly determine the competitiveness and ultimately the performance of the individual firm.  SBN2008 will combine science and business to explore and examine the concepts and practices of smart business networks under the theme “The Networked Experience”.

Scope of “The Networked Experience:” 

The Networked Experience concentrates on:

• Smart: how business processes are organized within and across firm boundaries to create distinctive capabilities that are not commonplace today;
• Business: serving the end-customer in a timely and efficient way delivering new measurable business value in terms of sustainable profitable positions; and
• Networks: beyond the static value-chain – a dynamic interfirm network that is more competitive than those of competing firms.

We invite scholars to contribute their studies to offer new insights on the emergence, governance, design and operations of today’s smart business networks. We encourage scholars from a broad array of disciplines, including but not limited to, social network analysis, graph theory, complex systems analysis, information systems, modularity, swarm intelligence, strategy and economic theory to submit their paper. We also invite professionals from business to share their understanding of why “being networked” is important: and to highlight their cases and personal experiences. SBNs impact marketing and sales capabilities, e-business, information systems and strategy, social networks, value chain dynamics, outsourcing models, agile manufacturing, and service creation and delivery across all industries.

Program

Management scholars and professionals will jointly explore and discover the realities of, and developments, in smart business networks in Beijing.
The “Academic Program” will take place from Sunday evening 18 May 2008 (opening dinner) and close on the evening of Tuesday 20 May 2008.

From Wednesday 21 May to Thursday 22 May an “Experience Tour” will be organized to visit businesses in and around Beijing with a view to examine how, national Chinese companies and international companies operating in China are acting to “be networked”. On the closing day the results from Experience Tour and the Academic Program will be presented. SBN2008 will include a visit to the Olympics Committee.