L.M. Camarinha-Matos et al. (Eds.): PRO-VE 2009, IFIP AICT 307, pp. 547–554, 2009. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2009 Supporting Structural and Functional Collaborative Networked Organizations Modeling with Service Entities Rubén Darío Franco, Ángel Ortiz Bas, Guillermo Prats, and Rosa Navarro Varela CIGIP Research Centre on Production Management and Engineering, Edificio 8G, Acceso D, Planta 4, CP 46022, Valencia, Spain {dfranco,aortiz,gprats,ronava}@cigip.upv.es Abstract. This work focuses on the Service Entities definition as an approach that may help to support structural and functional Collaborative Networked Or- ganizations (CNO) modeling, when VOs are engineered inside Virtual Breeding Environments Management Systems (VMS). Manbree is an undergoing devel- opment which is intended to provide an integrated framework for CNO model- ing and execution based on that approach and it is briefly described at the final section. Keywords: Collaborative Networked Organizations, Enterprise Modeling, Service Oriented Architecture, Virtual Breeding Environment Management System. 1 Introduction Collaboration among geographically dispersed entities, organizations or individuals, is increasing due to the facilities given by Information and Communication Technolo- gies (ICT). Those technologies allow Virtual Breeding Environments enhance the effectiveness and rapidness of Virtual Organizations creation and operation. But in order to realize such vision, it is necessary to design and implement a new kind of systems which can be able of managing both VBE and VO Life Cycles in a consistent and integrated way. The so-called VBE Management Systems are expected to fully support the creation, operation and dissolution of Virtual Organizations, by defining a set of reference models (at structural, functional or behavioral level, to name few of them) that must be adopted by VBE/VO participants when they are will- ing to be involved in collaboration opportunities. By adopting such VBE-MS Reference Models, VBE/VO participants agree on common engineering and operating principles. Consequently, for really achieving such VBE/VO alignment, reference modeling plays a preponderant, if no critical, role. When exist, VO Reference Models provides reliable procedures for engineering those environments and more flexible operational structures can be easily deployed. The research questions this paper raises are: how VBE and VO reference models must be supported by a VBE-Management System? How do they really may enable