Organizational Collaborative Model of Small and Medium Enterprises in the Extended Enterprise Era

Large firms tend to overlap their boundaries in unstable environments and create strategic alliances and collaborations with their suppliers, customers and partners. In the automobile sector, firms are extended enterprises continuously innovating and creating new products through their dynamic capabilities. A large automotive company seeks to leverage its relationships with its customers and suppliers through networks creation. More specifically, partnering with the organizations, constituting a Dealers’ networkproviding after sales services to customers as assisting, selling, and repairing cars. The dealers’ network consists of small and medium organizations that represent the automotive company and are the intermediary among it and its customers. Through this research, we are elaborating a model representing the collaborative relationship among the automotive company and its dealers’ network that leads to knowledge creation and sharing about the automobiles components and services of this extended enterprise. We present a model illustrating the dealers’ network organization and its interaction with the large firm. The collaborative knowledge network (CKN) contributes to the sustainability of the new product development (NPD) process of the