Abstract—This paper is based on the premises that the cooperation between companies in a network has been highlighted as an alternative organizational configuration in response to recent economic and technological changes. This article has analyzed the business cooperation networks from the point of view of its hierarchical structures, its risks and benefits, and afterwards some considerable important actions were proposed. Studies have shown that with well-defined hierarchical structures, the identification of potential risks and benefits may be the way for business cooperation networks to acquire competitive earnings, and also to keep improving its practices and actions.

Index Terms—Business cooperation network, competitive advantage, hierarchical structures, sustainability.

José Luiz P. D'Oliveira, Antônio Pasqualetto, and Solange Silva are with School of Engineering, PUC Goiás, Brazil (email: joseluiz.doliveira@yahoo.com.br).
Leonardo Guerra de Rezende Guedes is with School of Engineering, Electrical, Mechanical and Computer Science from the Federal University of Goiás and the School of Mathematical Sciences and Computer PUC Goiás, Brazil.
Marcelo Lisboa Rocha is with Federal University of Tocantins, Brazil.

Cite: José Luiz P. D'Oliveira, Leonardo Guerra de Rezende Guedes, Antônio Pasqualetto, Solange Silva, Marcelo Lisboa Rocha, "Business Cooperation Networks: Risks and Benefits," International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 120-127, 2016.