Hierarchical Multi-Attribute Decision Support Approach to Virtual Organization Creation

The process of virtual organization (VO) creation can be seen as the selection of a set of organizations from a larger set, called a VO breeding environment (VBE). Often a VBE provides several possible VO configurations whose efficiency differs. The ultimate task is to evaluate all possible configurations in order to select the optimal VO configuration. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we formalize the VO creation process as a multi-attribute decision-making problem. Second, we suggest a hierarchy of attributes for computer-supported VO creation. Finally, we illustrate our approach using a subset of criteria, through a case of an existing VBE, the Virtuelle Fabrik AG.