Value creation by leveraging interoperability between virtual and real-world business environments

Virtual Worlds are designed for sociability, environments where people have interaction with other people. Enterprises have already started exploring this new world as a way to provide a compelling new value proposition to their products and services. This paper makes a proposal for addressing the issue of interoperability between virtual and real-world business environments as a way to foster value creation opportunities as the virtual and real world interact with each other. To this end, the authors propose the Integration of 2nd Life object behaviour modelling within the actual Enterprise Engineering Life-Cycle in order to achieve a seamless enactment of both interoperable models in the virtual and real world. We believe therefore that our approach can bring value to most interaction types, especially in integration of the consumer in the value network and in strengthening the relationship between the consumer and the actual physical product. It is our believe that this will foster new opportunities for value creation, both in the interaction between the enterprises (including different segments of the network value chain) and in the interaction between these and actual the product or service consumer.