Virtual Enterprises to Develop Learning Environments in an E-marketplace

A horizontal marketplace provides value to participants by enabling each stakeholder to focus on competencies and reduce investments in non–essential components that can be more efficiently supplied by other market participants. The paper discusses how the Virtual Enterprise business model can formalize and support the e-learning market change from a proprietary and vertical approach towards a horizontal and inter-organizational "coo-petitive" solution (coo-perative along the value chain and com-petitive for each inside horizontal specialized layer). A multi layer framework to assemble basic contents in higher level e-Learning products to be sold in a marketplace is introduced as exchange models for Virtual Enterprises in the e-learning market are presented and validated.