1 “From Continuous improvement to Collaborative improvement: Scope, Scale, Skill and Social Networking in collaborative improvement”

More than ever, companies are challenged to improve their performance and respond quickly and accurately to changes within the market. As competitive battlefield is moving towards the level of networks of organisations, the individual firm is an inadequate entity for identifying improvements. Therefore the concept of continuous improvement must be applied and used in inter-organisational settings, leading to the concept of collaborative improvement. However the process of applying and transferring CI to inter-organisational settings is fraught with intra- and inter-organisational change issues and working practices. For companies to be able to effectively manage and organise the process of collaborative improvement knowledge and understanding on the process itself is needed