Collaborative Networks in Australia — Challenges and Recommendations

Abstract

Australia is a country with a size comparable to Europe but with less than 10% of the inhabitants. Low-density population results in relatively high cost of infrastructures and small domestic markets. Over the last ten years, Australia has moved from a locally oriented economy to one that operates as part of the global business environment. Australian companies, large and small, take this opportunity to form alliances with international partners in order to participate in large-scale overseas projects. The most significant challenge facing Australian researchers in the next decade is the understanding of the collaboration in this complex and dynamic international business network and to put it into successful practice. Through our recent projects in global enterprise networks, we recommend the key research areas on collaborative networks to be the design of extended enterprise, technologies for the integration information and knowledge across company boundaries and the support to people in collaborative decision-making.