The Virtual Development Office Framework for Business Networks: A Case Study from the Umbrian Packaging District

The globalization of competition has entailed that organizations of developed countries have to face new kinds of competitors with low labor cost and often advantageous exchange rates (resulting in favorable export selling prices). In such a scenario, innovation and organizational flexibility are becoming fundamental levers to enable enterprises to increase their competitiveness. For this reason, the need arises of an organizational methodology that enables organizational flexibility and capacity of performing innovation. Our recipe consists of the concept of network enterprises, to enable organizational flexibility, and the formalization of the VDO concept – Virtual Development Office – to enable innovation in a collaborative environment.