Eric Costa
email: eric.m.costa@inesctec.pt

António Lucas Soares

Jorge Pinho De Sousa

From Data Sources to Information Sharing in SME Collaborative Networks Supporting Internationalization: A Socio-semantic Approach

Keywords: data and information sources, internationalization of SMEs, international business, business associations, collaborative networks, sociosemantic approach

Information is a crucial asset to successful internationalization, as it allows to reduce risks and uncertainty and to facilitate international expansion. Information about foreign markets and activities can be obtained by companies from internal or external sources, and in formal or informal ways. Industrial business associations (IBAs) are one of the external information sources. Due to their resource constraints, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) tend to highly depend on the services and information of IBAs to expand their business overseas. However, to improve their role in supporting SME internationalization, one important development is for IBAs to evolve towards more collaborative networks, by sharing more organized and valued information with their associates, but also by fostering information flows and more collaborations between them. This paper contributes to this view by synthetizing current data and information sources to support SME internationalization, based on a literature review, on interviews with Portuguese IBAs, and on expert opinion. An innovative aspect is to present a first instantiation of a socio-semantic model, opening paths for further developments in this area, and contributing to the community of Collaborative Networks.

Introduction

Today, in a Big Data era and information overload, the ability of companies to extract vital information from the vast amount of available data sources represents one of the main key success factors for achieving competitive advantage [START_REF] Smallwood | Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies and Best Practices[END_REF]. Thus, in this datarich world, having access to valued information is also a crucial asset for companies to remain successful in international markets [START_REF] Knight | Information internalisation in internationalising the firm[END_REF]. Internationalization requires high quality information extracted from a variety of different data sources but the problem is that many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) still face major challenges to have access and to manage internationalization-related information and knowledge, to reach more effective international endeavors [START_REF] Costa | Information, knowledge and collaboration management in the internationalisation of SMEs: A systematic literature review[END_REF]. Therefore, having more support from external entities and having access to credible information sources is a fundamental aspect for SMEs to improve their international operations.

Although existing different opinions about the utility of their services, industrial business associations (IBAs) are institutional actors that provide some support to SME internationalization, who are also identified in previous studies as one source of information about international trade activities [START_REF] Leonidou | The export marketing information system: an integration of the extant knowledge[END_REF][START_REF] Riddle | Information Sources for New Ventures in the Turkish Clothing Export Industry[END_REF]. Nevertheless, previous research also points that the IBAs' role as information providers and as external support to internationalization may be improved by progressing to a collaborative network, by sharing more organized and valued information, and by promoting flows of information and knowledge, and more collaborations among their associate companies [START_REF] Costa | A new insight in the SMEs internationalization process[END_REF][START_REF] Costa | Information management for network transformation in industrial enterprises associations: The case of the internationalization process[END_REF][START_REF] Costa | Situating case studies within the design science research paradigm: An instantiation for collaborative networks[END_REF].

Therefore, this paper presents one important step for contributing to this view, by identifying, characterizing, and synthetizing current data and information sources to support SME internationalization. These findings allow to make a contribution for improving the first stage of the information management life-cycle of IBAs, which is the information acquisition stage [START_REF] Detlor | Information management[END_REF]. Other stages of the information management life-cycle (information organization, storing, distribution, and use) will be explored in future developments of this study.

Research Methodology

The research methodology of this study was composed by four parts: (i) an exploratory literature review; (ii) interviews with IBAs; (iii) the use of expert opinion; (iv) the adoption of a socio-semantic approach.

A literature review was first performed to synthetize the data and information sources indicated in previous studies that are used by companies in their internationalization processes (Section 3.1). After that, one of the information sources was explored in more detail, i.e. the IBAs (Section 3.2.).

To increase the knowledge about this specific context of IBAs, an empirical study was performed by collecting data through interviews with 20 IBAs in Portugal (Section 4). This part of the study helped to reinforce the practical relevance of the research, as well as to identify specific information sources that IBAs use to support the international activities of their associate SMEs.

In addition to that, expert opinion was also used, by contacting people with knowledge on existing information sources for internationalization, allowing to discover additional sources (Section 5).

Finally, the socio-semantic approach of Pereira et al. [START_REF] Pereira | A Socio-semantic Approach to Collaborative Domain Conceptualization[END_REF][START_REF] Pereira | Supporting conceptualisation processes in collaborative networks: a case study on an R&D project[END_REF] was adopted in this paper to present the first instantiation of a socio-semantic model of a collaborative network for internationalization (Section 6). This approach was adopted as it allows to obtain a more socio-cognitive perspective to create more effective tools that can better represent the complexity of information and knowledge sharing in collaborative networks of organizations [START_REF] Pereira | A Socio-semantic Approach to Collaborative Domain Conceptualization[END_REF]. Therefore, in this approach, organizational networks are modelled as socio-semantic networks. A socio-semantic network is then a network of relationships between the organizational actors (individuals and groups of the organizations that form the collaborative network) and the concept structures (concepts and conceptual structures organized in business domains) [START_REF] Pereira | Supporting conceptualisation processes in collaborative networks: a case study on an R&D project[END_REF]. At the end, it is possible to obtain a socio-semantic network model composed by three networks: (i) the social network (links between individuals); (ii) the semantic network (links between concepts); and (iii) the socio-semantic network (links individuals to concepts). As stated by Pereira et al. [START_REF] Pereira | A Socio-semantic Approach to Collaborative Domain Conceptualization[END_REF][START_REF] Pereira | Supporting conceptualisation processes in collaborative networks: a case study on an R&D project[END_REF], this integrated view can help researchers that are studying collaborative networks to better understand the interplay between knowledge structures and social structures.

3 Literature Review Findings

Information Sources for International Business

A systematic search and acquisition of information about foreign markets and foreign partners has been considered, in the International Business (IB) literature, as one of the most critical factors for achieving the internationalization success [START_REF] Nguyen | Information internalisation and internationalisation: Evidence from Vietnamese firms[END_REF]. Theodosiou and Katsikea [START_REF] Theodosiou | The Export Information System: An Empirical Investigation of Its Antecedents and Performance Outcomes[END_REF] consider that the export/internationalization information system comprises four key dimensions: information sources, information acquisition, information dissemination, and information utilization. In this paper, we are specifically concerned about the information sources.

Quality and relevant information is required to compensate the lack of prior knowledge and experience in foreign markets, and as a way to reduce internationalization uncertainties [START_REF] Xie | Social networks and the internationalization of Chinese entrepreneurs[END_REF]. Therefore, companies tend to rely on multiple sources of information to satisfy their internationalization needs [START_REF] Costa | Information, knowledge and collaboration management in the internationalisation of SMEs: A systematic literature review[END_REF][START_REF] Theodosiou | The Export Information System: An Empirical Investigation of Its Antecedents and Performance Outcomes[END_REF]. These information sources can be classified in different ways [START_REF] Leonidou | The export marketing information system: an integration of the extant knowledge[END_REF][START_REF] Akerman | An international learning typology: Strategies and outcomes for internationalizing firms[END_REF]:  Primary and secondary sources;  Formal and informal sources;  Internal and external sources. Information can be collected from primary sources, based on specific actions developed by the own company, such as market studies, or can come from secondary sources that has been already collected by other entities, such as statistics from governments. Information can be derived from formal sources, where data is acquired through formal actions, such as meetings and focus group discussions, or from more informal sources, when the information is obtained by personal and casual interactions with partners. Information can also be acquired from internal company sources, based on previous experiences in international markets and by using internally stored information, such as financial accounts. Finally, companies can also rely on information from sources external to the organization, by using the experience of others and externally available information.

There are many ways for a firm to acquire information and knowledge about foreign markets [START_REF] Nguyen | Information internalisation and internationalisation: Evidence from Vietnamese firms[END_REF]. Xie and Amine [START_REF] Xie | Social networks and the internationalization of Chinese entrepreneurs[END_REF] found that decision-makers typically choose their information sources as a function of their perceived utility. Nonetheless, it has been shown in previous studies that different information sources are not equally useful for the internationalization process [START_REF] Theodosiou | The Export Information System: An Empirical Investigation of Its Antecedents and Performance Outcomes[END_REF]. The use of information sources depends on many factors, among which the size of a company, and the advancement and level of experience regarding its international activity, are some of the most important to have in consideration [START_REF] Bartosik-Purgat | Polish exporters' use and perception of various sources of market information[END_REF]. For example, previous studies agree that SMEs tend to use less expensive, easily accessible, and more informal sources when compared to large companies [START_REF] Leonidou | Export information sources: the role of organizational and internationalization influences[END_REF][START_REF] Benito | An exploration of the information behaviour of Norwegian exporters[END_REF]. From other side, large companies rely more on primary sources, by conducting their own studies and market analyzes [START_REF] Bartosik-Purgat | Polish exporters' use and perception of various sources of market information[END_REF].

Due to the existence of a large variety of classifications of information sources in the literature, we summarize the information by cross-casing the analyzed literature and create our own classification (Table 1).

Business Associations as Information Sharers

Looking at the diversity of entities and organizations that act as information sources to support internationalization processes of companies (Table 1), chambers of commerce and IBAs are many times referred as one of those institutional entities of support. These entities represent different firms of a specific industrial sector or act as intermediaries within a multi-sectoral network of companies [START_REF] Costa | Information management for network transformation in industrial enterprises associations: The case of the internationalization process[END_REF]. Therefore, they are characterized by their collective and member-based nature, where members share a common interest and membership is most of the times voluntary [START_REF] Bennett | Business associations and their potential contribution to the competitiveness of SMEs[END_REF][START_REF] Traxler | Handbook of business interest associations, firm size and governance: A comparative analytical approach[END_REF]. In addition to that, they are intermediaries between business sectors and government action, and they provide services for their members [START_REF] Traxler | Handbook of business interest associations, firm size and governance: A comparative analytical approach[END_REF][START_REF] Boléat | Managing trade associations[END_REF]. Many empirical studies have been made to study the information source behavior of exporting SMEs and large companies, in order to understand the most used information sources in internationalization processes. Regarding the usefulness of the information provided by IBAs, there are mixed opinions about that. By performing an integrative review of the literature, Leonidou and Theodosiou [START_REF] Leonidou | The export marketing information system: an integration of the extant knowledge[END_REF] conclude that although the experience of chambers of commerce and trade associations offer firsthand information about foreign markets, this information was not extensively used nor regarded as useful by companies. Looking at other specific empirical studies, Benito et al. [START_REF] Benito | An exploration of the information behaviour of Norwegian exporters[END_REF] report the results of a survey with 221 Norwegian exporting companies, revealing that large companies, in contrast to smaller ones, generally give higher priority to the information of industry associations rather that the information that is provided by the export council. In a more qualitative fashion, Walters [START_REF] Walters | International market information infusion: Data acquisition behaviour in Norwegian exporters[END_REF][START_REF] Walters | Export information sources: A study of their usage and utility[END_REF] performs a first study with 33 companies from the USA and a second one, with the same sample size, but focusing in Norway. In both studies, industry associations are considered by companies as a useful information source to have access to more general, cheap and easy to acquire information about markets and exports (e.g. exports/imports, trade barriers), and to obtain contacts in foreign markets. However, companies also consider that more expensive information sources, with more detailed and market related experience, can be more helpful for their international expansion. The counterpart of using this kind of sources is the intrinsic costs that will limit their use.

By analyzing the information source behavior of 80 export firms in Cyprus, Leonidou and Katsikea [START_REF] Leonidou | Export information sources: the role of organizational and internationalization influences[END_REF] demonstrate that companies tend to rely more on personal contacts rather than impersonal sources, such as chambers of commerce and industry associations, when gathering information for internationalization. In fact, the analyzed companies, from one side, recognize the existence of information services from those institutional entities but, from the other side, they often consider to be information of low value. In contrast, Riddle and Gillespie [START_REF] Riddle | Information Sources for New Ventures in the Turkish Clothing Export Industry[END_REF] measure the company owners' awareness of the role of two business associations that act as information sources for SMEs in the Turkish clothing export industry. Results show that these business associations are perceived as very important information sources for companies' exports, mainly to have access to information about the export laws, foreign markets and the export process. More recent studies show that business associations and chambers of commerce are perceived to be the most important institutional information sources for Polish exporters [START_REF] Bartosik-Purgat | Polish exporters' use and perception of various sources of market information[END_REF][START_REF] Danik | Information Sources Applied in Search for a Foreign Business Partner and the Perception of Barriers in Establishing International Cooperation[END_REF]. Gashi et al. [START_REF] Gashi | Export behaviour of SMEs in transition countries[END_REF] and Patel-Campillo and DeLessio-Parson [START_REF] Patel-Campillo | Why types of operations, trade associations, and production trends matter in the geographic branding of an emerging industry[END_REF] suggest a positive influence of membership in business associations to the propensity of SMEs to export. Finally, findings of Costa et al. [START_REF] Costa | Information management for network transformation in industrial enterprises associations: The case of the internationalization process[END_REF] show that, although recognized by some Portuguese companies as a useful source of information, their information management role can be improved to better meet their internationalization needs.

In summary, previous literature shows that business associations and chambers of commerce have the potential to be important information sources to support internationalization processes, mainly for SMEs. However, as stated by Costa et al. [START_REF] Costa | A new insight in the SMEs internationalization process[END_REF][START_REF] Costa | Information management for network transformation in industrial enterprises associations: The case of the internationalization process[END_REF], these institutional actors might have a more active role as information managers and in fostering collaboration between associates. The next section starts to contribute to these aspects by identifying and characterizing current internal and external information sources that are used by IBAs to support SME internationalization.

Insights from Industrial Business Associations

Results from the interviews show that Portuguese IBAs use different data and information sources to provide information to support the internationalization of their members. Compared to the information sources found in the literature (Table 1), the ones used by IBAs are, in general, similar. Nonetheless, some other specific internal and external information sources are identified in this section, as well as some particular websites and cooperative entities. The findings allow to add new elements to the list of available information sources useful for internationalization.

According to the interviewees, the use of information sources for internationalization processes is very flexible and different from case to case. The information can be acquired for obtaining more macro-economic views of industrial sectors and countries, or can be more detailed, by using information sources to share specific information about promotional actions or internationalization opportunities. Most of the IBAs also have a large diversity of members and sub-sectors in the same industrial sector, making it difficult to obtain information to satisfy the specific needs of each company. Naturally, this situation complicates the process of synthetizing all the information sources used by IBAs, but an attempt to achieve this is presented in Table 2. The IBAs' network of contacts is referred as one of the most important information source. Most of them have many established and trusted contacts that comes from decades of experience, acquired in previous studies and internationalization projects. So the own experience and know-how is a vital information source for the IBAs. A particular case to highlight here is the specific IBAs' members that often serve as a relevant information source. The associates express not only their needs to the IBAs but also indicate some specific countries that can be of interest for the exportations of the sector, or even some specific internationalization projects and opportunities. What they expect in return is for the IBA to use its contacts, services and knowledge base, and to act as intermediary between them and entities of interest. The use of databases are also mentioned by the interviewees, but only some of them are actually using this data source because it has high costs of acquisition. Some particular entities and organizations are also mentioned by the interviewees as being important sources of information about international trade and activities:

Table 2. Data and information sources used by IBAs to support SME internationalization



A Socio-semantic Model of a Collaborative Network Mediated by a Digital Platform

Previous research show that IBAs can have a more active role in supporting SME internationalization, by fostering more collaborations between associates [START_REF] Costa | A new insight in the SMEs internationalization process[END_REF]. This support can also be enhanced by improving their information management role to better meet companies' informational needs [START_REF] Costa | Situating case studies within the design science research paradigm: An instantiation for collaborative networks[END_REF]. Therefore, one important development for the positive impact of IBAs on the internationalization process can be the evolution towards a more collaborative network, fostering flows of information between associates [START_REF] Costa | Information management for network transformation in industrial enterprises associations: The case of the internationalization process[END_REF]. Consequently, by having in consideration these previous findings, and with the new findings described in this paper, it is a natural conclusion that an effective collaborative network, where one of the main goals is to share information and knowledge about internationalization processes, can be achieved by means of a digital platform which can mediates social relations, levered in data and information management. Therefore, based on a socio-semantic perspective [START_REF] Pereira | A Socio-semantic Approach to Collaborative Domain Conceptualization[END_REF][START_REF] Pereira | Supporting conceptualisation processes in collaborative networks: a case study on an R&D project[END_REF], we present the conceptual skeleton of the IBA-SME digital platform (Figure 1) modelling the users (SMEs) structural links through descriptive profiles (implementation of a social network), the basic information structure to organize information gathered from the internationalization information sources (semantic network), and the linkage between users and information (socio-semantic network). The set of rectangle shaped nodes representing the information subjects are linked through is_a or is_type_of, is_part_of, or a general binary relationship. On its turn, this implements a semantic network. The dotted edges, labelled as has_interest_in, connect users with information subjects. From these links, a second social network can be derived connecting users through their common information subject interests. The management of the IBA accumulates the roles of network manager and information manager (modelled by the respective profiles) implementing the usual Network Administrative Organization (NAO) governance type for this kind of organization [START_REF] Provan | Modes of network governance: Structure, management, and effectiveness[END_REF].

This section presents a first instantiation of a socio-semantic model of a collaborative network for supporting SME internationalization, mediated by a digital platform and managed by IBAs. Naturally, this is only a small advance in terms of the modelling approach. Nevertheless, this first model serves as a basis for further developments for improving next stages of the information management life-cycle.

Conclusion

This study contributes for the development of IBAs as important information sources for the international activities of SMEs. The identification of data and information sources that can be useful for both improving the IBAs' support and the internationalization of SMEs, represents an important step for contributing to this IBAs' evolution. Future developments will be concentrated in further stages of the information lifecycle, by identifying specific information content and categories from the identified sources, by studying ways of organizing and storing this information, and by understanding the means and channels to be used for distributing this information.

In complementarity to this, the socio-semantic network model will progress and will evolve in the following ways: (i) by adding more detail on the relations and links between the social organizations (social network); (ii) by adding new concepts and domains, and their relations in terms of conceptual structures (semantic network); and (iii) by exploring the links between these previous networks (socio-semantic network).

Finally, this paper can also contribute to the broader community of Collaborative Networks, by showing the application of the socio-semantic approach developed by Pereira et al. [START_REF] Pereira | A Socio-semantic Approach to Collaborative Domain Conceptualization[END_REF][START_REF] Pereira | Supporting conceptualisation processes in collaborative networks: a case study on an R&D project[END_REF]. Results of this study allow to support the arguments of these authors about using this approach for obtaining a more integrated view between knowledge structures and social structures, when analyzing collaborative networks of organizations. This opens avenues for other researchers to use and explore this approach in their collaborative network projects.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Conceptual model of an IBA-SME digital platform Figure 2 shows an instantiation of the conceptual model where the socio-semantic network becomes clear. A set of round shaped nodes representing the users (or, institutionally, the SMEs) are linked through is_linked_to named edges. This implements the usual social network connections.

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. Socio-semantic network model of a collaborative network mediated by the IBA-SME digital platform

Table 1 .

 1 Data and information sources for internationalization from the literature, according to location

	Information sources	References
	Internal sources
	Personal contacts (e.g. export customers, own agents and distributors)	[2, 4, 5, 13, 17, 19-22]
	Company's own knowledge and experience	[5, 16, 22]
	Company's sales people and offices, and export agents	[4, 13, 16-21]
	Foreign market visits	[4, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 22]
	Company's studies and market research	[2, 4, 16, 17, 19, 21]
	Company's records (e.g. reports from sales people, statistical reports,	[4, 16-19, 22, 23]
	trade contracts and invoices)
	External sources
	Business networks
	Suppliers	[4, 5, 17, 19, 22, 23]
	Competitors	[16, 17, 22]
	Customers	[4, 5, 16-19, 22, 23]
	Strategic partners and other organizations in the industry	[4, 20, 22]
	Overseas agents, distributors and representatives	[4, 5, 16-19, 23]
	Commercial brokers and freight forwarders	[4, 17, 19, 20, 22]
	Social networks
	Friends	[5, 14]
	Family	[5, 14]
	Institutional networks
	Government offices/ministries	[2, 4, 13, 17, 19-21]
	Embassies	[4, 13, 16-20]
	Chambers of commerce	[4, 13, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22]
	Business, trade and industry associations	[2, 4, 5, 13, 17-21]
	Export agencies	[2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19,
		22]
	Consulting and research agencies and institutes	[2, 4, 12, 13, 16-18, 20-
		22]
	Universities and polytechnics	[2, 17]
	Banks	[4, 16, 17, 19-22]
	Physical documents and publications
	Trade catalogues, journals, magazines, and books	[4, 13, 16-19, 21, 22]
	Local and international periodicals, journals and newspapers	[4, 13, 17-22]
	Internet (e.g. trade lists, statistics, ratings and rankings, on-line market studies	[2, 12, 13, 16, 22, 23]
	and surveys, on-line journals and newspapers, clients and customers'
	webpages)
	Databases, directories and repositories	[4, 16-18]
	Public and commercial libraries	[2, 4, 17, 19]
	Trade missions, trade fairs/exhibitions and other export/promotion programs	[4, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 22]

Acknowledgments. This research was funded by the Portuguese funding agency, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), through the Ph.D. Studentship SFRH/BD/110131/2015. It was also supported by the Project "TEC4Growth -Pervasive Intelligence, Enhancers and Proofs of Concept with Industrial Impact/NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000020" financed by the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Expert Opinion and Additional Information Sources

Findings from the expert opinion allowed to identify additional international portals, databases, directories and repositories from specific entities and websites. These data and information sources can be accessed and used by IBAs to support SME internationalization. Table 3 presents only the ones that represent new information sources, not identified in the previous sections.


Arda Gezdur
email: arda.gezdur@sydney.edu.au

Jyotirmoyee Bhattacharjya
email: jyotirmoyee.bhattacharjya@sydney.edu.au

Digitization in the Oil and Gas Industry: Challenges and Opportunities for Supply Chain Partners

Keywords: Supply chain digitization, supply visibility, supply chain integration, oil and gas

Declining oil prices have made it necessary for oil and gas companies to scrutinize their operations and associated costs. The increase in data richness from the digitization of supply chain processes could help these companies manage risks, and increase collaboration and profitability. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities for oil and gas industry in this context.

Introduction

Oil and gas are key sources of energy that provide a foundation for global economic growth. Firms in the oil and gas industry require complex machinery and a large amount of capital investment. Thus, there are huge barriers for other companies wishing to enter the industry. Over the years, the industry has experienced high profitability so digitization has largely been a "nice-to-have". However, the recent fall in oil prices due to increasing supply alternatives and slower growth in demand provides motivation for companies to focus on leaner operations and cost reduction.

Oil and gas supply chains are composed of segmented and discrete data hubs. There is little transparency across entities in the supply chain. Even within companies, data is stored and managed separately by different divisions and there is discontinuity in process flows [START_REF] Lasschuit | Supporting Supply Chain Planning and Scheduling Decisions in the Oil and Chemical Industry[END_REF]. Decisions are taken based on disparate spreadsheets without consideration of the full picture. Appropriate digitization strategies could help with supply chain integration and information sharing between suppliers, transporters, storage facilities and customers.

Supply Chain Digitization in the Oil and Gas Industry

The need for supply chain digitization and the potential benefits have received growing attention in the literature ( [START_REF] Katz | Using a Digitization Index to Measure the Economic and Social Impact of Digital Agendas[END_REF], [START_REF] Francis | Supply Chain Visibility: Lost In Translation?[END_REF], [START_REF] Prater | International Supply Chain Agility -Tradeoffs between Flexibility and Uncertainty[END_REF], [START_REF] Gunasekaran | Responsive Supply Chain: A Competitive Strategy in a Networked Economy[END_REF], and [19]). Current trends in the digitization of supply chains include 3D printing, Uberization, internet of technologies, cloud computing, advanced robotics and drones [START_REF][END_REF]. The oil and gas industry can be regarded as a 'latecomer industry' [START_REF] Kohli | Digital Transformation In Latecomer Industries: CIO and CEO Leadership Lessons From Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc[END_REF] in this context. The literature on digitization and supply chain visibility for the oil and gas sector is scarce and diverse. A clear pathway is needed for evolution towards a highly efficient digital ecosystem in the oil and gas industry. Studies on the digitization of supply chains focus on integrating operational technology systems with information technology systems using big data [START_REF]Tapping The Power of Big Data for the Oil and Gas Industry[END_REF]. Use of big data and integration of operational and information technologies are crucial for digitization of supply chains [START_REF] Hamzeh | Application of Big Data in Petroleum Industry[END_REF].

Digital transformation projects can take considerable effort and time. For instance, a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) project undertaken by Encana in the United States was undertaken over a 12-year period [START_REF] Kohli | Digital Transformation In Latecomer Industries: CIO and CEO Leadership Lessons From Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc[END_REF]. As an upstream company, Encana senior managers had sought different alternatives for responding to price volatility and reducing production costs by seeking unconventional sources of natural gas. This project helped Encana improve supply chain visibility by embedding digital technologies to integrate its data and establish new information systems policies.

Although the upstream oil companies are not new to big data analytics, most of them are in preliminary stages of implementing relevant technologies [START_REF] Baaziz | How to Use Big Data Technologies to Optimize Operations in Upstream Petroleum Industry[END_REF]. Companies are benefitting from the sensors embedded in their drilling operations and are working on integrating this data with their supply chain information systems. Oil and gas companies need to carry out a gap analysis before investing on digitization. Furthermore, these companies need to create new strategies to utilize the big data for their decision making processes.

The extent of digitization within individual companies influences the digitization within the overall supply chain. Furthermore, supply chain collaboration between the companies also influences and improves companies' performances [START_REF] Cao | Supply Chain Collaboration: Impact on Collaborative Advantage and Firm Performance[END_REF]. Supply chain collaboration is also directly linked with interorganizational dependencies, as past collaboration activities can be used as a basis for defining the dependencies. Among the different types of interorganizational dependencies, sequential and reciprocal dependencies matter for oil and gas companies. If companies in a suppliercustomer relation agree to use a specific resource and if the product of one is a raw material for the other company, the arrangement is described as sequential dependency. In such a dependency, the technologies of the supplier and customer companies need to be linked. In reciprocal dependency, the resources are shared in no particular sequential order and in a many-to-many type of dependency to increase collaborative advantage [START_REF] Kumar | Sustainable Collaboration: Managing Conflict and Cooperation in Interorganizational Systems[END_REF]. Oil and gas companies can share onshore and offshore facilities and logistics infrastructure. The extent of dependency can vary across different countries and practices are not consistent throughout the globe. Furthermore, these companies are familiar with linked and complex technologies for information sharing. Thus the interorganizational dependency of the oil and gas companies is sequential or reciprocal varying across different continents throughout the world. When discussing the levels of digitization in companies in the oil and gas industry as a whole, we need to consider upstream and downstream operations separately. Due to narrower profit margins and direct relation with end customers, downstream oil and gas companies have started using digitization strategies earlier than the upstream companies. The past, present and potential future of digitization in oil and gas are summarized in Table 2.

Table2. Developments in digitization for upstream and downstream companies (Based on [2])

Upstream

Supply Chain Visibility in the Oil and Gas Industry

The aim of digitization projects is ultimately to improve supply chain visibility. Oil and gas companies need to set the goal as virtualization of a supply chain with the following attributes [START_REF] Lasschuit | Supporting Supply Chain Planning and Scheduling Decisions in the Oil and Chemical Industry[END_REF]:  Complete horizontal integration in which data from feedstock to product trading are integrated  Achieving strategic fit through convergence in strategy, planning and scheduling  Modularity to enable flexibility in implementation stage  Scalability so that the applications are suitable for the most simple or complex supply chains  Interactivity for collecting effective customer feedback  Real time optimization speed with direct links to online plant optimization Supply chain visibility increases if the company has more control on its supply chain. Fully integrated companies have better control over their supply chains and access to customer feedback [START_REF] Chima | Supply-Chain Management Issues in the Oil and Gas Industry[END_REF]. This feedback in turn can influence the quality of their upstream processes. The major Norwegian oil company, Statoil, considered outsourcing five processes: routing of supply vessels, daily coordination of the flow of supplies, performance evaluation of suppliers and logistics providers, problem solving and conflict negotiation and influencing and improving the supply chain [START_REF] Aas | Outsourcing of Logistics Activities in a Complex Supply Chain: A Case Study from the Norwegian Oil and Gas Industry[END_REF]. They used transactional cost analysis to understand the effects of outsourcing each of these processes and found that only outsourcing the routing of supply vessels generate a substantial advantage. Although by outsourcing the company can concentrate on its core competencies, it stood to lose visibility into transaction-specific data as well as control over its supply chain. Supply chain visibility is closely linked with the agility and competitiveness of companies. Lean processes create agility and companies need to reduce waste in their operations to be lean [3]. Agile companies outperform others and thus gain competitive advantage.

Companies in the oil and gas industry employ various software systems for managing their supply chains. However, most solution providers focus only on supply chain management (SCM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. Thus, substantial effort may be needed to integrate disparate SCM and ERP solutions. Furthermore, only a few of the SCM software packages incorporate real-time vehicle routing and scheduling (VRS) capabilities. To develop a real-time end-to-end, digital ecosystem, oil and gas companies need to be able to achieve better integration between their software platforms. The current capabilities of the major software packages in the ERP, SCM and VRS space are shown in Fig1 (based on [START_REF]Modern Materials Handling[END_REF],[23 and [START_REF] Gartner | [END_REF]).

Fig1. Capabilities of major software companies in terms of SCM, ERP and VRS (Based on [START_REF]Modern Materials Handling[END_REF], [23] and [START_REF] Gartner | [END_REF]) SAP and Oracle are the only two major software vendors which provide all three types of solutions. The choice of solution would depend on different cost and performance considerations for oil and gas companies. When companies choose to use more than one software system, the efficiency of data transfer between the systems becomes vitally important. This necessitates the design of an efficient data integration architecture. Companies need to be able to address problems caused by interruptions in data transfer between the software solutions as well as potential corruptions in the data. The planning and execution processes for a company using multiple software solutions are depicted in Fig 2 . The SCM software requires relevant master and transactional data to generate a plan. This data is stored in ERP system and transferred to SCM system. The SCM software generates a plan after forecasting and optimizing the supply chain drivers. The execution plan generated by the SCM software is then transferred to the ERP system as an order generation, followed by real-time execution and reconciliation. While these processes are running new data is obtained from other data sources like digital data sources and manual entries. The new data is transferred in a batch process to the SCM software to generate the next execution plan. Since the SCM software works discretely and ERP works continuously there is always a gap between the plan and the real-time execution and thus moving the company away from the goal of achieving a fully integrated digital ecosystem. Thus, although it may seem to be cheaper to use multiple software packages at first sight, companies also need to consider the efficiencies that could be gained in a fully integrated digital ecosystem.

Fig2. Planning and execution processes for companies using multiple software solutions

Discussions

Digitization forms the backbone for supply chain visibility improvement efforts. As a company invests more in digitization, it starts to get greater insight from its operations. When the company extends its visibility through all operations and removes wasteful information, it starts to become more agile and thus it gains greater ability to respond to the variations in its operations. Supply chain agility and responsiveness are affected by the achievable extent of visibility. In latecomer industries such as oil and gas these changes have been gradual. However, the evolution towards digital ecosystems requires greater intensiveness in digitization efforts among all key players in the supply chain. The first author's industry experience and the previous business and academic literature suggest that the oil and gas industry has begun major digitization initiatives. These efforts are far more advanced in the downstream context.

Conclusions

Oil and gas companies have understood the importance of digitization and are improving their supply chains by employing digital strategies, using smart manufacturing, designing digital business models and using data analytics as core competencies. A majority of these companies are only at the first stage of the evolution toward a digital ecosystem and are working on their visibility improvement efforts. These companies need to augment their efficiency in exchanging information, increase transparency and remove the friction in their information flow. The development of flexible digital ecosystems involves companies which employ virtualized processes, virtualized customer interfaces, and collaborate with other firms in the industry. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for oil and gas supply chains across the world with the increasing speed of digitization and the nature of technologies adopted. Academic researchers have a role to play here in observing and analyzing current efforts, participating in the development of innovative solutions and informing industry of successes, failures and contextual drivers.

  Fig 3 summarizes these stages in digital evolution. Stage 1 involves digitization efforts and resultant visibility. Stage 2 involves the achievement of agility and responsiveness. Stage 1 and Stage 2 do not represent single instances in time as digitization efforts continue over the period of years and have changing influence on Stage 2. Stage 3 involves a final stage of evolution into a digital ecosystem through the contributions and collaboration of all relevant players in the supply chain.

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Supply chain evolution toward digital ecosystem for oil and gas industry


Ronald Van Den Heuvel
email: [ronald.vandenheuvel@ou.nl

Jos Trienekens
email: jos.trienekens@ou.nl

Rogier Van De Wetering
email: rogier.vandewetering@ou.nl

Rik Bos
email: rik.bos]@ou.nl

Toward CNO Characteristics to Support Business/IT-Alignment

Keywords: Business/IT-alignment, Collaborative Networked Organization, Characteristics, Dynamism

Increasing market dynamics rapidly change the business landscape. Collaboration amongst organizations is a common way to cope with these dynamics. Achieving a state of Business/IT-alignment (BITA) within Collaborative Networked Organizations (CNOs) appears to be a valuable endeavor. Therefore, this paper investigates CNO characteristics, as a basis, to incrementally design BITA artifacts that facilitate CNO-dynamism. Via a structured literature review and an expert session, we synthesized a list of 6 main and 22 sub-characteristics for CNOs. This list provides more detailed characteristics than we found in the literature. We also discuss the importance of the characteristic "Dynamic and self-regulating network" and the need for new BITA models that can cope with the dynamics.

Introduction

Collaborative networks have become a common organizational form in current dynamic markets. A CNO consists of multiple participants that collaborate to achieve common goals [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative networks: a new scientific discipline[END_REF]. This field of CNOs is not new (1990s). However, studies used inconsistent conceptualizations of the term and a broadly accepted ontology currently is missing [START_REF] Walters | The new economy, new opportunities and new structures[END_REF][START_REF] Esposito | Investigating virtual enterprise models: literature review and empirical findings[END_REF]. CNOs emerge from the pressing need to innovate, change and collaborate and efficaciously deal with environmental dynamics. This need becomes even more pressing since the speed in which market and environment evolve is increasing [START_REF] Grefen | Dynamic business network process management in instant virtual enterprises[END_REF][START_REF] Grefen | Networked business process management[END_REF]. This increase of dynamism in the environment could increase dynamism within the CNO leading to creation, reconfiguration/(re)partnering and decommission. This requires intense collaboration within the CNO, something that is only possible through the extensive use of IT. Achieving a state of alignment within these CNOs appears to be a valuable endeavor that could provide benefits on agility and performance [START_REF] Coltman | Strategic IT alignment: twenty-five years on[END_REF]. However, extant literature on BITA predominantly focusses on uniminded organizations (opposed to networked organizations) and does not consider the network dynamics 'lens' [START_REF] Coltman | Strategic IT alignment: twenty-five years on[END_REF][START_REF] Bernus | Enterprise architecture: Twenty years of the GERAM framework[END_REF][START_REF] Van De Wetering | A meta-framework for Efficacious Adaptive Enterprise Architectures[END_REF][START_REF] Van Den Heuvel | Business/IT-alignment adaptation in dynamic networked environments in PRO-VE[END_REF][START_REF] Cuenca | Business-IT Alignment and Service Oriented Architecture -A Proposal of a Service-Oriented Strategic Alignment Model[END_REF].

Recently, both management and Information Systems (IS) research increased attention towards the adaptive and co-evolutionary nature of BITA [11,[START_REF] Benbya | Using coevolutionary and complexity theories to improve IS alignment: a multi-level approach[END_REF] and dynamic, multi-faceted processes to align IT and the business in constantly-changing business environments [START_REF] Van De Wetering | A meta-framework for Efficacious Adaptive Enterprise Architectures[END_REF][START_REF] Vessey | The dynamics of sustainable IS alignment: The case for IS adaptivity[END_REF][START_REF] Van De Wetering | Modeling Alignment as a Higher Order Nomological Framework[END_REF].

This research paper investigates CNO characteristics to develop a basis for our research project to create new BITA models that facilitate CNO-dynamism. The paper is organized as follow. Section 2 provides some background on the concept CNO and BITA. Section 3 describes the research methodology that was used. Section 4 describes the results and contains the list of characteristics. This paper ends with a discussion (section 5) and conclusion (section 6).

Background

Collaborative Networked Organizations (CNO)

Organizations operate in dynamic environments where stakeholders and their wishes quickly change and they continuously need to innovate, change and collaborate to cope with these dynamics [START_REF] Bernus | Enterprise architecture: Twenty years of the GERAM framework[END_REF][START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative networked organizations -Concepts and practice in manufacturing enterprises[END_REF]. Under these conditions, collaborative networks are emerging. This is a transformation from a uniminded system, which has the form of a single autonomous legal entity, to a multiminded social model, that has the form of joint ventures or collaborative relationships [START_REF] Gharajedaghi | Systems thinking: Managing chaos and complexity: A platform for designing business architecture[END_REF][START_REF] Binder | A conceptual framework for enterprise management[END_REF]. Collaborative networks manifest in a large variety of forms [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative networks: a new scientific discipline[END_REF][START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative networked organizations -Concepts and practice in manufacturing enterprises[END_REF]. Camarinha-Matos and Afsarmanesh [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative networks: a new scientific discipline[END_REF] argue that a CNO is "constituted by a variety of entities (e.g., organizations and people) that are largely autonomous, geographically distributed, and heterogeneous in terms of their operating environment, culture, social capital, and goals". Literature describes different characteristics related to CNOs like: exploit fast-changing market opportunities; flexible, rapid, dynamic and reactive network; partnership among independent companies and the high dependence on IT [START_REF] Esposito | Investigating virtual enterprise models: literature review and empirical findings[END_REF]. These characteristics reflect the network, environmental aspects and the goal-oriented focus of a CNO. These characteristics could operate on different levels, which can be classified as: (1) Participants level, (2) Context level and (3) the Marketplaces level [START_REF] Dyer | Complexity-Based Agile Enterprises: Putting Self-Organizing Emergence to Work[END_REF]. The current body-of-knowledge provides various examples of CNOs. However, despite valuable research effort, the vast majority of studies does not provide clear characteristics for these organizations.

Business/IT-alignment (BITA)

In a CNO, IT is directly used to manage the information exchange and communication between participants [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative networks: a new scientific discipline[END_REF][START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative networked organizations -Concepts and practice in manufacturing enterprises[END_REF][START_REF] Concha | The e-HUB evolution: From a Custom Software Architecture to a Software-as-a-Service implementation[END_REF]. To manage the whole IT landscape, BITA is commonly used. BITA refers to applying IT in an appropriate and timely way, in harmony with business strategies, goals and needs and leads to an increase in agility and performance [START_REF] Coltman | Strategic IT alignment: twenty-five years on[END_REF]. Henderson and Venkatraman [START_REF] Dekkers | Distributed Manufacturing as co-evolutionary system[END_REF] argue that organizations should embrace continuous adaptation and change to achieve alignment and business goals. As such, they argue that 'no single IT applicationhowever sophisticated and state of the art it may be -could deliver a sustained competitive advantage' [START_REF] Henderson | Strategic alignment: Leveraging information technology for transforming organizations[END_REF].

Recent studies support this view [START_REF] Coltman | Strategic IT alignment: twenty-five years on[END_REF][START_REF] Van De Wetering | A meta-framework for Efficacious Adaptive Enterprise Architectures[END_REF][START_REF] Benbya | Using coevolutionary and complexity theories to improve IS alignment: a multi-level approach[END_REF][START_REF] Peppard | The Co-evolution of Business/Information Systems Strategic Alignment: An Exploratory Study[END_REF]. However, how alignment is achieved within complex networks remains largely unaddressed [START_REF] Coltman | Strategic IT alignment: twenty-five years on[END_REF][START_REF] Bernus | Enterprise architecture: Twenty years of the GERAM framework[END_REF][START_REF] Van De Wetering | A meta-framework for Efficacious Adaptive Enterprise Architectures[END_REF], and mainstream concepts for BITA are developed for uniminded organizations [START_REF] Bernus | Enterprise architecture: Twenty years of the GERAM framework[END_REF][START_REF] Dekkers | Distributed Manufacturing as co-evolutionary system[END_REF]. BITA models that recognize and can cope with CNO-dynamism do not exist yet.

Research Methodology

Three steps can be recognized, respectively structured literature review, expert session and confrontation. The structured literature review is executed based on methods of Levy and Ellis [START_REF] Levy | A systems approach to conduct an effective literature review in support of information systems research[END_REF], Armitage and Keeble-Allen [START_REF] Armitage | Undertaking a structured literature review or structuring a literature review: tales from the field[END_REF]. The literature is processed by title & abstract selection, reading, comprehending, evaluating the literature until only relevant literature was left. Forward and backward searching is applied to the results to get additional literature. The quality parameters for this review were: (1) peer reviewed; (2) not older than ten years (not applicable to seminal papers); (3) written in the English language. No limitations to geographical locations were applied. We used EBSCO Host (Academic Search Elite, Business Source Premier and E-Journals) to acquire the literature. Some special interest journals were selected based on the "MIS Journal Rankings" list [START_REF][END_REF]. We built queries based on the three main research components (Table 1) and the above mentioned quality parameters.

The following combinations were used: CS+CNO+BITA; CNO+BITA; CS+CNO; CS+BITA. Depending on the number (<100) of results, additional parameters (Year and Special Interest Journals) were added. Experts involved with this research project provided additional, recent, literature ([8, 26, 27]).

Table 1. Search queries on research components

Complexity Science (CS) CNO BITA ("co-evolution" OR coevolution OR "evolutionary theor*" OR "self organi?ation" OR evolution OR tension OR adoption OR emergence) ("networked organi?ation" OR "collaborative networked organi?ation" OR "collaborative networks" OR "netwok organi?ation" OR multiminded OR "business network" OR "virtual organi?ation" OR "virtual organi?ation breeding environment" OR uniminded OR multiminded) ("IT/business alignment" OR "IT/business strategy" OR "business strategy" OR "IT strategy" OR "IT governance" OR "enterprise architecture")

The team did an expert session using the Metaplan® method [START_REF] Metaplan | Moderating group discussions using the Metaplan approach[END_REF] and consists of three scientific researchers on the senior level and one Ph.D. researcher. All in IT, complexity sciences and/or BITA/CNOs field. All participants were given literature to prepare for the session, [2-6, 19, 22, 26, 27, 29-32]. The duration of the session was 2 hours.

The session was divided into the following phases: (1) Describe goal; (2) Individual brainstorm about characteristics of CNO; (3) Explanation of characteristics; (4) Group characteristics; (5) Review groups; (6) Map expert session characteristics groups on groups from literature review; [START_REF] Bernus | Enterprise architecture: Twenty years of the GERAM framework[END_REF] Recap & finish-up. The characteristics from the literature review were not provided as preparation material. The team activity started with phase 3. As the first team step, participants had to describe their insights and ideas to the other participants. In phase 4, these characteristics were categorized, grouped and duplicates were removed from an overall CNO characteristics list. In phase 5, the characteristics and groups were incrementally reviewed and reformulated. During phase 6 the characteristics and groups from phase 5 were mapped on the characteristics from the literature review. This resulted in a set of relationships between the characteristics from the expert session and the characteristics from the literature review. Finally, phase 7 recapped the session and the results. The facilitator processed and distributed the results for validation to all participants.

In the confrontation, the characteristics from literature and the expert session were critically reviewed and compared. The identified relationships from the expert session served as a foundation for the confrontation. As the synthesis subsequently developed, studies and outcomes were read and reread to check all the relevant topics and interpretations. The final list of CNO characteristics was created by categorizing, combining, splitting, rewriting and restructuring the characteristics. This step within the confrontation process resulted in an ordered schema of main and sub characteristics. Characteristics could operate on different levels, being: Participants; Context; ECO-Systems [START_REF] Dyer | Complexity-Based Agile Enterprises: Putting Self-Organizing Emergence to Work[END_REF]. We categorized the characteristics on these specific levels to synthesize our list. Traceability of these actions was logged during the process.

CNO Characteristics

The literature review resulted in a large amount of results (Table 2). Criteria were added to limit the results and focus on higher quality literature. This was done for the combination CNO+CS and BITA+CS. The search queries resulted in 108 articles that could be reviewed and used for forward and backward searching on the references. The highest results came from the combination BITA+CS. BITA is a broad researched area and by adding criteria, the results were limited to 52. Switching criteria did not have relevant effects on the articles included in the review. In most cases literature used the term "characteristics", but "attributes" and "viewpoint" were also used. We did not exclude articles based on the usage of a different term. Table 3 shows the synthesized common characteristics derived from this review, coded as L1-L12.

Esposito and Evangelista [START_REF] Esposito | Investigating virtual enterprise models: literature review and empirical findings[END_REF] describe several shared characteristics: Exploit fastchanging market opportunities (L11); Share costs/risk, skills and core competencies (L6); Flexible, rapid, dynamic and reactive network (L3); Partnership among independent companies (L8); Temporary relationships (L3); Collaborative/Cooperative relationships (L5, L11); Extensive use of ICT and computer networks (L4). Esposito and Evangelista [START_REF] Esposito | Investigating virtual enterprise models: literature review and empirical findings[END_REF] mention a clash within the literature in the field of management. One part of the literature focusses on hierarchical structures and others on so-called holarchical structures. They state that "In the holarchical VE, partners act as a single business entity and the self-organisation approach is the main coordination mechanism". In this quote, VE can be interpreted as CNO. This clash is visible in the model of Camarinha-Matos, Afsarmanesh [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative networked organizations -Concepts and practice in manufacturing enterprises[END_REF] where hierarchical structures could map to long-term strategic partnerships and holarchical structures to goal oriented networks.

Dekkers [START_REF] Dekkers | Distributed Manufacturing as co-evolutionary system[END_REF] pays attention to CNOs from a manufacturing perspective and states that an important difference between monolithic companies and CNOs is the absence of a central decision-making unit (L1), the lack of a consistent strategy across all the agents (L2) and the capability to reconfigure the network (L3). Concha, Espadas [START_REF] Concha | The e-HUB evolution: From a Custom Software Architecture to a Software-as-a-Service implementation[END_REF] address the need for specific ICT solutions (L4) to make sure participants can communicate with each other within the dynamics of a collaborative network.

Walters and Buchanan [START_REF] Walters | The new economy, new opportunities and new structures[END_REF] state that: CNOs are not hierarchical but participants are equal within the network (L5); The network is dynamic and self-regulating (L3); There is knowledge sharing within the network (L6); The network is evolving and constantly interacting with its environment (L7); It's a learning organization (L6).

Camarinha-Matos, Afsarmanesh [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative networked organizations -Concepts and practice in manufacturing enterprises[END_REF] mention the following common characteristics for CNOs: Networks composed of a variety of entities which are largely autonomous (L8), geographically distributed (L9) and heterogeneous in terms of their operating environment, culture, social capital and goals (L10); Participants collaborate to (better) achieve common or compatible goals (L11); the interaction among participants are supported by computer networks (L4).

Weber [START_REF] Weber | Measuring supply chain agility in the virtual organization[END_REF] researched the supply chain agility of CNOs. In her study, she synthesized the following characteristics for CNOs: Loosely related group of companies formed to enable collaboration towards mutually agreed on goals (L1, L8, L11); Focus on adaptability, flexibility and the ability to react quickly to changes in the market (L3, L8, L7); Substantial cost reductions, higher productivity and greater satisfaction of both employees and customers because they provide the means to create greater focus and integration (L6).

Van Alstyne [START_REF] Van Alstyne | The state of network organization: a survey in three frameworks[END_REF] synthesized the following characteristics from literature: A network organization maintains permeable boundaries either internally, among business units or externally with other firms (L3, L5, L8); Management is less hierarchical (L1); deriving its authority more from expertise than from rank (L1, L6); Higher degree of intangible, local, or specialized know-how (L6, L10); Communication is direct and point-to-point rather than "through channels" (L1); knowledge of emerging problems and opportunities may arrive via multiple loose associations or weak ties (L3); Resources are specialized and customizable within a given product or service scope (L11); less vertically integrated than their hierarchical counterparts (L1); Purposeful agents may establish ties to other agents and organizations (L1, L3); Tasks are more project and less functionally driven (L11); Differentiated products (L11, L12); integrated staff conception and line executing (L1); local concerns are more locally addressed and thus owned (L1); High degree of trust and commitment between parties; sharing risk (L5).

Rahman and Bhattachryya [START_REF] Rahman | Virtual Organisation: A Stratagem[END_REF] also mentioned characteristics for organizations: They have a shared vision and goal and/or common protocol of cooperation (L8, L11); They cluster activities around their core competencies (L6); They work jointly in teams of core competence groups, to implement their activities in a holistic approach throughout the value chain (L1); They process and distribute information in real time throughout the entire network, which allows them to make decisions and coordinate actions quickly (L4); They tend to delegate from the bottom up whenever economies of scale can be achieved, new conditions arise, or a specific competence is required for serving the needs of the whole group (L1) Also Rahman and Bhattachryya [START_REF] Rahman | Virtual Organisation: A Stratagem[END_REF] mention the characteristics: Autonomous participants that collaborate in VO (L8). Shorter lived organizations focused on a common goal shared among participants (L11); Sharing risk, knowledge and capabilities (L6).

There are different views in the literature on these collaborative networks like a business process management point of view [START_REF] Rasouli | Information Quality in Dynamic Networked Business Process Management[END_REF][START_REF] Rasouli | Information governance requirements in dynamic business networking[END_REF], social view [START_REF] Gharajedaghi | Systems thinking: Managing chaos and complexity: A platform for designing business architecture[END_REF], manufacturing view [START_REF] Dekkers | Distributed Manufacturing as co-evolutionary system[END_REF]. The characteristics used within these different viewpoints overlap.

In the expert session, the participants provided in total 37 characteristics (Table 4) coded as M1-M37. In most cases, the characteristics could be related to the literature review. At the end of the session, consensus was achieved on the characteristics, groups and relationships to characteristics from the literature review. M1; M2; M3; M7; M18; M19 are new characteristics. M1, M29, M35, M37 were mentioned multiple times by the experts. Also, relationships between characteristics from the experts were established. We agreed that there was a relationship between M2 and M3, M2 and M4, M4 and M5, M5 and M6. These relationships fit within the topics of modularity, interaction levels and the level on which modularity is described. M18 is relat-ed to M17 and M19, which are related to adaptation and evolution of the CNO. Lastly, the experts concluded that M27 has a relationship with M28 (Panarchy life-cycle follows a Möbius-strip movement).

In phase 6, most of the characteristics from the expert session were related to L3 (9x), L1-L6-L7-L8-L11 (5x). Characteristics L2 and L5 did not have any characteristics attached from the expert session. This could be related to a different interaction maturity level as described by Camarinha-Matos, Afsarmanesh [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative networked organizations -Concepts and practice in manufacturing enterprises[END_REF], Camarinha-Matos and Afsarmanesh [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative Networks: Reference Modeling[END_REF]. In their articles, they describe a lower interaction level called "cooperation" or "coordinated network" where organizations do not have these characteristics. The confrontation resulted in 6 main characteristics (Table 5) coded as N1-N6. In this process, characteristics were rewritten, combined, and split up into multiple characteristics. For instance, N1 was created from the characteristics L11, M33, M34, M36, L12, M37, all these characteristics are related to common goals between participants. L6 was split up into N2.1, N2.2, N2.3, N2.4. N2.4 was combined from L6 and M23. Both are related to trust within the network. Another example is N2.5 that was combined from M20, M21, M22, L4 because all these characteristics were related to the fact that "IT is an essential capability". The groups, being: (1) Participants; (2) Context; (3) Marketplaces [START_REF] Dyer | Complexity-Based Agile Enterprises: Putting Self-Organizing Emergence to Work[END_REF], provided some guidance in the process.

We noticed that the characteristics from the literature review were in most cases on a higher abstract level than characteristics from the expert session. We also noticed that the characteristics from the literature review were not directly linked to each other, but by combining the results from the expert session, relations manifested. A relationship is visible between the cluster around IT (L4) and the cluster related to capabilities, risk and trust (L6) via M22. This relationship shows that IT can be seen as an expertise of a participant, and resulted in the combination of the two characteristics in N2. A relationship is also visible between the cluster around dynamics within the network (L3, N3) and continuous interaction with the environment (L7, N5). Where the first is categorized in (2) Context and the latter in (3) Marketplaces. This shows the relationship between the internal dynamics within the network and the external dynamics within the environment that both influence the CNO. The relationship between the clusters around dynamics within the network (L3, N3), CNO hierarchy (L1, N1) and participant autonomy (L8, N4), show the independent and autonomous nature of the participants. This is in line with the definition of CNO provided in Camarinha-Matos and Afsarmanesh [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative networks: a new scientific discipline[END_REF]. Ever increasing market dynamics and turbulence rapidly changes the business landscape and ecosystem of organizations. CNOs are a common organizational form to cope with environmental dynamics [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative networks: a new scientific discipline[END_REF][START_REF] Grefen | Dynamic business network process management in instant virtual enterprises[END_REF][START_REF] Grefen | Networked business process management[END_REF]. Participating organizations need to efficaciously adapt and co-evolve with the dynamics within the network and the environment. The synthesized characteristics (Table 5) try to capture these dynamics.

From literature we understand that CNOs highly rely on IT to collaborate within their network of participants [1-5, 15, 19, 22, 26, 27, 32] and that IT systems are a core element of high-performance configurations [START_REF] El Sawy | Research commentary-seeking the configurations of digital ecodynamics: It takes three to tango[END_REF]. According to El Sawy, Malhotra [START_REF] El Sawy | Research commentary-seeking the configurations of digital ecodynamics: It takes three to tango[END_REF] a complex configuration of multiple elements could lead to higher performance and thus strategic sustainable advantages. Current BITA models do not specifically address this CNO-dynamism and are predominantly focused on uniminded organizations opposed to CNOs [START_REF] Coltman | Strategic IT alignment: twenty-five years on[END_REF][START_REF] Bernus | Enterprise architecture: Twenty years of the GERAM framework[END_REF][START_REF] Van De Wetering | A meta-framework for Efficacious Adaptive Enterprise Architectures[END_REF][START_REF] Van Den Heuvel | Business/IT-alignment adaptation in dynamic networked environments in PRO-VE[END_REF]. Also, IT is an important enabler within CNOs, and IT systems are a core element of high-performance configurations. We therefore argue that CNOs could benefit from BITA models that could increase agility and performance [START_REF] Coltman | Strategic IT alignment: twenty-five years on[END_REF]. Therefore, we continue our research to synthesize and design BITA models. We argue, based on the outcomes of this study, that these types of models should fit the dynamic nature of CNOs, the environment they operate in and acknowledge that IT systems facilitate rapid creation, reorganization or decommissioning of CNOs in these turbulent and dynamic times. This dynamics "lens" fits the characteristic group "N5 Dynamics and self-regulating networks". By combining results from the SLR and expert session to one set of characteristics, we try to assist researchers to examine CNOs and CNO-dynamism. In our future research, we will specifically use the characteristic group "N5 Dynamics and self-regulating networks" to design BITA models to facilitate CNO-dynamism.

Obviously, this study has several limitations. First, by executing a SLR, with clear constructed queries, qualitative journals and multiple indexes, we tried to achieve a broad view on the research topic. Nevertheless, literature could be missed due to these particular parameters and the addition of parameters could limit the results. Second, bias, i.e. the inclination to hold a particular perspective, among experts could be an issue since the authors of this article took part in the expert session. We think this effect is limited due to the fact that we used a systematic expert review and validated the characteristics against the characteristics found in the literature review. Finally, no additional validation currently has been performed on the outcomes of this research, i.e. the list of characteristics. This will be part of our future research. We do think that the constructs, like CNOs and their characteristics, are sufficiently valid by using high-quality literature, an expert session and the structured confrontation of the two results.

Conclusion

Outcomes of this paper contribute to IT and CNO literature through three key findings which raise several theoretical and managerial implications. First, extant (IT) literature does not adequately address and explain how CNO-dynamism is facilitated through the use of IT-resources and capabilities. Hence, we argue that the design of adequate BITA models is an important step in order to explain how CNO-dynamism can be supported. Moreover, these insights could be beneficial for executives and business managers in practice in order to drive organizational and collective CNO efforts that would increase agility, performance and ultimately advantage. Second, the complex multi-faceted interrelations and interactions among the many stakeholders and (IT) resources can only be investigated through a methodological 'lens' that explains non-linear dynamics among the many interacting agents and components [START_REF] Merali | Information systems strategy: Past, present, future[END_REF].

Third, the current study synthesized a list of 6 main characteristics (Table 5) that can assist researchers to examine CNOs. Via the creation of characteristics for CNOs, we observed that there could be a relationship between complexity science and CNOcharacteristics. Future research can investigate and identify specific configurational and contingency alignment patterns within the CNO-context.

Table 2 .

 2 Results from literature review and additional quality criteria

	Input	Results	Added Year	Added Journals
	BITA + CNO + CS	5
	CNO + CS	162	120	4
	BITA + CS	2.000+	1.543	52
	BITA + CNO	47

Table 4 .

 4 Characteristics from expert session

	#	Characteristic	#	Characteristic
	M1	Long-term/short-term	M20 IT is an integral part of collaboration
	M2	Level of collaboration (business,	M21 Infrastructure
		information, tech)	M22 Essential capabilities (IT, strategy,
	M3	Maturity (integrated/connected)		communication)
	M4	Modular (loosely coupled)	M23 Trust basis
	M5	Many-to-many relations epistatic	M24 Distributed capabilities
		relations	M25 Complementary partnerships
	M6	Interaction patterns (int./external)	M26 Sharing of resources
	M7	Size CNO (# orgs, #employees,	M27 Panarchy life-cycle (adaptive cycle)
		#revenue)	M28 Möbius-strip organization
	M8	Control function	M29 (in)Dependence from partners
	M9	No mandatory central org. struct.	M30 Location/time zone
	M10 Control of the network (central,	M31 Culture
		decentralized, hybrid)	M32 Diversity
	M11 Collaboration fixed/dynamic	M33 Common goals within the networked
	M12 Dynamic partnering (join/leave)		organization
	M13 Change/adaptation	M34 Goal(s)
	M14 Complex landscape of organization	M35 Product vs. service-orientation (prod-
				uct/process)
	M15 Networks can change in volatility	M36 Individual org. cannot achieve the
	M16 Environmental turbulence		shared goals
	M17 Non-linear	M37 Developments/manufacturing vs co-
	M18 Emergent		creation (customer)
	M19 Multi-level effects

Table 5 .

 5 CNO Characteristics

	#	Characteristic	#	Characteristic
	N1	Common goals between partici-	N4	Autonomous participants
		pants within a fast-changing mar-	N4.1 Non-hierarchical determined control
		ket (co-creation)		function for the network (centralized,
	N2	Complementary partnerships,		decentralized, hybrid)
		shared & distributed capabilities	N4.2 Modular (loosely coupled)
	N2.1 Shared knowledge	N4.3 Lack of a consistent strategy across
	N2.2 Shared capabilities		participants
	N2.3 Shared risk	N4.4 Equality between the participants
	N2.4 High amount of trust	N4.5 No geographical limitations on distribu-
	N2.5 IT is an essential capability		tion of the organizations
	N2.6 Level of collaboration (business,	N4.6 Diverse/heterogeneous operations in
		information, technology)		culture, social capital and goals
	N3	Evolution (change/adaptation) and	N5	Dynamic and self-regulating network
		continuous interaction with the	N5.1 Dynamic partnering (join/leave,
		environment		fixed/dynamic, short/long)
	N3.1 Adaptive cycle (Panarchy cycle)	N5.2 Complex landscape of organization
	N3.2 Environmental turbulence	N5.3 Many-to-many relations epistatic rela-
	N3.3 Emergent behavior		tions
	N3.4 Multi-level effects	N5.4 Interaction patterns (int./external)
	N3.5 Non-linear effects	N5.5 Maturity (integrated/connected)
			N6	Size CNO (#organizations, #employees,
				#revenue)