Brief Historical Perspective for Virtual Organizations

Abstract

Emergence of the virtual enterprise / virtual organization paradigm falls within the natural sequence of the restructuring processes in traditional industrial paradigms that is enabled by advances in information and communication technologies. In parallel with the outsourcing tendency, another transformation observed in large companies is their reorganization as a “federation” of relatively autonomous departments. The idea of VE/VO was not “invented” by a single researcher; rather it is a concept that has matured through a long evolution process. The history of industrial enterprise integration, as well as the integration technologies and paradigms in the last three decades are briefly introduced. The position of the VE/VO in the e-movement is identified.