Glossary of Terms
Agility
One indicator of
network agility is how quickly information can move around the network and
spread out across the network to reach all members. A network's agility is
important to be able to make sense of and adapt to internal and external
changes. It is also an indicator of how easy it is for any individual to reach
the person who might be able to solve a specific problem. A high average
distance between roles can be an indication that there are not enough hubs or
connectors in the network.
Asset Impact
Asset impact considers which assets are most
affected by the network behavior as a whole, and by the actions of specific roles.
Impact to the sender role, to the receiver role, or to the network itself can
be determined. Typically people assess impact to the receiver. However, it is
quite useful as a way to assess the impact of a transaction to the network as a
whole.
Attribute
An attribute is a
descriptor or property that defines the characteristics of an object.
Business Model
A business model
is a set of "rules," interactions, and relationships that define how a business
generates value. It describes the rationale
of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value - whether economic,
social, or other forms of value.
Business Relationships
See: Relationship Capital.
Centrality
Centrality is a classic network indicator
that shows which roles have the most ties. Roles (nodes) with more ties are
said to be more "central" to the network and may have advantaged positions.
They may have alternative pathways to satisfy their needs, less dependency on
other individuals, and access to more of the resources of the network as a
whole.
Channel Management
See: Mechanism
or Channel Analysis.
Customer Capital
Customer capital
refers to the quality of an organization's relationships with its customers. It
is a component of relationship capital.
Deliverable in a Value Network
A deliverable is the specific value or object that is conveyed from one
role or participant to another role or participant. It can be a tangible
product or service, such as a pair of jeans or a manicure. It can also be an
intangible or informal offering (e.g., information or knowledge about
something) or an intangible benefit (e.g., political support) that one person
can bestow upon or give to another.
Density
See: Stability.
Exchange in a Value
Network
An exchange refers to two or more transactions between two or more roles
or participants, and it evokes a quality of reciprocity (e.g., an exchange of
money for service). More formally it is a
process in which one role as an economic agent receives resources from another
role or other roles as economic agents, and it provides resources in return.
Exchange Analysis
The Exchange Analysis, a core analysis in the Value Network Analysis methodology,
is an assessment of overall patterns and network dynamics of value exchanges. It
determines if the value system is healthy, sustainable, and expanding.
Explicit Knowledge
Explicit knowledge
is knowledge that is codified and conveyed to others through dialogue, demonstration,
or media (e.g., books, drawings, and documents).
Flows of Value or Value Flows
Two or more transactions that occur as a logical sequence are considered
a flow. Examples of flows are business processes, communication flows, and
chains of causality in which one event triggers another.
Flow Analysis
Flow analyses are
techniques that can be used to explore different kinds of physical flows, and
sometimes non-physical flows, in which there is a time-ordered sequence or a
chain of cause and effect. These approaches come from many different
disciplines such as systems engineering, material flow analysis, and data flow
analysis.
Feedback
In Value Network Analysis feedback is the return of information about the
impact of an activity. In other uses it can also mean the return of a portion
of the output of a process as new input.
Goodwill
Historically,
goodwill has been considered as the positive disposition of a customer toward a
particular enterprise. Goodwill, however, also includes intangible assets or qualities
of the company, or its management, that cause people to hold the company in
high regard.
Human Capital or Human Competence
Human capital and
human competence refer to the knowledge, skills, and competencies that reside
in individuals who work in an organization, or that are embedded in the
organization's internal and external facing social networks.
Impact Analysis
The Impact Analysis, a core analysis in the Value Network Analysis methodology,
is an assessment of how an input for a role is handled. The analysis assesses tangible/intangible
costs (or risks) and tangible/intangible gains or value realization, derived
from the input, that:
- generates a response or evokes an activity
- increases or decreases tangible assets (cost/benefit)
- increases or decreases intangible assets (cost/benefit)
- provides other positive or negative benefits
Intangible Assets
Intangible assets
are resources under the control of an enterprise that are typically
non-physical and not of a monetary nature, and that are critical for the
success of the business. These resources include things such as brand image,
customer and employee loyalty, quality of business relationships, social
standing, competence of the workforce, improvements in internal structures and
processes, and social citizenship. Intangible assets may be converted to other
types of value (e.g., products or services).
Intangible Value in a Value Network
Intangible value
is generated by roles and participants as informal, non-contractual activities
or deliverables that help build business relationships and contribute to
operational effectiveness.
- Intangible knowledge exchanges include such things as strategic information, planning knowledge,
process knowledge, technical know-how, collaborative design, and policy
development. These exchanges flow around and support the core product and
service value chain.
- Intangible benefits are advantages or favors that can be offered by one person to another. An
example would be research organization asking someone to volunteer time and
expertise for a project in exchange for prestige by affiliation. Intangible
deliverables can be exchanged when people "trade favors" to build
relationships.
Intangibles
See: Deliverable in a Value Network.
Intellectual Capital
Intellectual
capital is another term for intangible assets and collectively refers to all resources
that determine the value and the competitiveness of an enterprise. As such, it
includes as subsets the attributes that concur to building all financial
statements as well as the balance sheet.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual
property refers to content or concepts over which a company enjoys a legally
protected owner's interest (e.g., patents, trademarks, copyrights, registered
design, and trade secrets).
Internal Structure
See: Structural Capital.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
See: Performance Indicators or Measures.
Knowledge
In organizations,
knowledge is experience, ways of working, concepts, beliefs, or principles -
all of which can be learned, communicated, and shared.
Knowledge Management (KM)
Knowledge
management refers to the facilitation and support of processes for creating,
sustaining, sharing, and renewing of organizational knowledge in order to
generate social or economic wealth or to improve performance.
Learning Organization
A learning
organization is an organization that is able to adapt to change, move forward,
and transform itself by acquiring new knowledge, skills, or behaviors.
Mechanism or Channel Analysis
A mechanism analysis or channel analysis can be included in a Value
Network Analysis. It helps determine the most appropriate technology and
infrastructure support for each transaction or group of transactions in a value
network.
Organizational Learning
Organizational
learning refers to activities or processes whereby an organization collectively
makes sense of its environment and responds with more adaptive behaviors.
Organizational Network Analysis (ONA)
Organizational Network Analysis involves the application of Social
Network Analysis (SNA) as a diagnostic tool for business and organizational
challenges.
Participants in a Value Network
Participants are
individual people, institutions, or groups that execute the roles in a value
network. Other examples are subgroups, organizations, collectives or
aggregates, communities, or nation-states.
Perceived
Value
A key focus in
Value Network Analysis, perceived value is how valuable senders and receivers perceive
a deliverable to be.
Perceived Value Analysis
The Perceived
Value Analysis in Value Network Analysis is a way to assess the level of value that
roles or participants feel they receive from individual deliverables. Such
deliverables can come from other roles and participants, and from the network
as a whole. Perceived value is usually assessed as part of the Impact Analysis.
Conversely the analysis is also done to assess the level of value that other
roles or participants feel about their deliverables.
Performance Indicators or Measures
Performance
indicators are either qualitative or quantitative metrics - for assessing the
quality or efficiency of execution of an activity, or for demonstrating
progress toward a goal or desired outcome. The terms performance indicators and performance
measures are often used interchangeably. The somewhat broader term, indicators can include second-order
indicators that point to possible progress, even if that progress cannot be
measured directly. The term key performance
indicator (KPI), which refers to any aspect of human and business
performance, has become part of the business language.
Reciprocity in a Network
Reciprocity is the extent to which value
contributions (ties) are reciprocated between roles and in the network as a
whole.
Relationship Capital
Relationship capital is the quality of alliances
and business relationships with customers, strategic partners, suppliers,
investors, regulatory bodies, and government groups.
Resilience in a Network
Resilience refers to the power or ability of the network to reconfigure
to respond to changing conditions, then return to its original form.
Return on Investment (ROI)
ROI is a
cost/benefit comparison of the cost of an investment or activity compared with
the financial and/or non-financial benefits that result.
Roles in a Value Network
Roles are the
contributing actors or economic agents in a value network. They are generic
value descriptors that are populated by participants (specific people or
entities) who generate transactions, send messages and other deliverables,
engage in interactions, conduct processes, create value, and make decisions. Roles
can be filled by individuals, groups or subgroups, organizations, collectives
or aggregates, communities, or even nation-states.
Scenarios
Scenarios are stories, similar to case studies, which describe a series
of events. They are usually developed to test out the robustness of a model
such as a value network.
Social
Network Analysis (SNA)
Social Network
Analysis is a social science discipline that focuses on relationships between
social entities. It views social relationships in terms of network theory. Social graphs consist of nodes and ties. Ties are also called edges, links, or connections. Nodes are the individual actors within the
networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. There can be many
kinds of ties between the nodes. Research in a number of academic fields has
shown that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the
level of nations. They play a critical role in determining the way problems are
solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in
achieving their goals.
Stability in a Network
Stability refers to the
firmness of the configuration of the network and its ability to resist
disintegration. Stability is revealed by measures of network density. Density
is calculated as the number of actual connections between roles divided by the
number of potential connections between roles - the higher this percentage, the
higher the density. Weak Tie Stability is the most significant density
indicator, showing the extent to which the loss of connections in the network
will impact performance of the network as a whole.
Stakeholder
Stakeholders have an interest in, provide resources for, or are affected
by sets of activities and any changes to that activity.
Stakeholder Analysis
A stakeholder analysis
is an evaluation of which stakeholders are most important, either for a system as
a whole or for a particular activity. It helps
determine who needs to be included in a system-level model or who would be
affected by an activity, changes, or decisions.
Structural
Capital or Internal Structure
Structural capital
refers to the infrastructure, routines, concepts, models, information systems,
work systems, and business processes that support productivity and that stay
behind in an organization when its employees go home.
System
A system is a
whole that cannot be divided into interdependent parts without losing the
integrity of the whole.
Systems Thinking
Systems thinking is a way of thinking about and describing the forces and
interrelationships that shape the behavior of systems.
Tacit
Knowledge
Tacit knowledge
refers to deeply personal experiences, insights, and know-how that are
difficult to communicate in an explicit way.
Tangible
Assets
Tangible assets
show up on the financial balance sheet. Examples are cash reserves, physical
property, machinery, and accounts receivable.
Tangible Value in a Value Network
Tangible value is generated through contractual or mandated activities
that contribute directly to economic gain, revenue, or funding. Tangible value transactions involve all paid
or funded exchanges of goods, services, or revenue. They include all
transactions involving contracts and invoices, return receipt of orders,
request for proposals, confirmations, and payment, etc. Knowledge products and
services that generate revenue are part of the tangible value flow of goods, services,
and revenue. These include products that are expected as part of a service,
such as reports or package inserts.
Tangibles
See: Deliverable in a Value Network.
Transaction
A transaction is a transfer of a role-generated or participant-generated value
deliverable can be tangible or intangible.
Value
Chain
See: Value Stream.
Value
Conversion
A key focus in Value
Network Analysis, value conversion is the act of altering or transforming one type
of value into another. An example is transforming an intangible input or asset
(e.g., industry insights and experience) into a tangible output (e.g.,
subscription newsletter).
Value Creation Analysis
The Value Creation Analysis is a core analysis in the Value Network
Analysis methodology. It is an assessment of the tangible and intangible costs
and gains for each value output a role or participant contributes to the network
through:
- adding new tangible or intangible value
- extending value to other roles or participants in the value network
- converting one type of value to another
- assessing cost/benefit in terms of industry, society and the
environment
Value
Network
A value network is a set of roles and interactions that generates a specific business, economic,
or social good. Any formal or informal group of participants or roles that are engaged
in tangible and/or intangible exchanges can be viewed as a value network.
Participant organizations can be private industry, government, or public
sector.
Value Network Analysis (VNA)
Value Network
Analysis is a whole-system mapping and network analysis approach to
understanding tangible and intangible value creation among roles and participants
in any purposeful activity.
ValueNet Works(TM) Analysis
A trademarked but
open resource methodology for Value Network Analysis.
Value Realization
Value realization
is the act of turning a value input, either tangible or intangible, into gains,
benefits, capabilities, or assets - all of which contribute to the success of
an individual, group, organization, or network.
Value Stream
Value chain and value stream are process views of how a business works. They
focus on inputs, capabilities, resources, and processes that generate a final
deliverable or output to the customer.
