Ethical Business and New Roles of Leadership: The case of collaborative networks and future research on virtuality

The importance of networks supporting collaboration between legally independent business partners is increasing. This is partly due to on specialization focused business strategies and the effects of globalization. Often these collaborative networks are submitted to web-based services linked through service oriented architecture (SOA) to individual firms’ ERP environment. However, when looking at Western Europe, integration of business activities is still challenged by a blockade of traditional business patterns. Participants in collaborative networks have to cross bridges to break with traditional business patterns. Virtues in business such as: transparency, trustworthiness, and action orientation are considered as constraints. Traditional business cherishes illusion about price, capacity and firms’ business standards. To implement change and transparent business settings ethical leadership is required.