Business Model as a Tool for Supply Chain Horizontal Collaboration

Abstract

Horizontal collaboration, seen as the new alternative from the traditional vertical integration, is a strategic tool that SMEs are using to gain competitive advantage inside a supply chain. As a strategic alliance between enterprises, horizontal collaboration provides several benefits as promoting strategic decisions, adequate resources administration, optimized logistics selection, and more. The process to implementing horizontal collaboration depends in the agreed strategies between the participating companies. For SMEs getting to the above point, they require some elements like time, trust, confidence, and joint goals. Given the above, business model proposed itself as a tool to promote horizontal collaboration through a conceptual map. This article contributes to an analysis of recent studies of horizontal collaboration in business model, supply chain, as well as difficulties at implementing horizontal collaboration and gain impact. For further research, this paper presents a discussion about the future implications of horizontal collaboration in industrial clusters, industry 4.0 as a strategic complement and technology/knowledge transfer.