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Abstract. Existing e-marketplaces, built on traditional client-server architectures, severely restrict the scope and dynamics of Business-to-Business (B2B) interactions. Peer-to-peer (P2P) architectures will provide far more decentralised infrastructures, while allowing a much wider range of business patterns to take place. On one hand, the interaction over a P2P network resembles the way real-world enterprises perform business with each other. On the other hand, a small set of simple services is enough to support complex business processes over a P2P infrastructure. Incidentally, most of the required technology is readily available, though it may be necessary to bring in an appropriate integration of different concepts. The paper discusses the implementation of essential services for P2P e-marketplaces, based on one of the leading P2P platforms, and illustrates its benefits by applying the P2P approach to a vendor of industrial equipment.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how workflow management can be applied in the context of business networking.Design/methodology/approachThe paper looks at workflow management systems (WfMSs) as an enterprise integration tool and, as such, it shows that WfMS require an appropriate integration infrastructure. The paper then describes how a WfMS that supports business networking can be built.FindingsIt is found that business networking requires a decentralized, peer‐to‐peer (P2P) integration infrastructure. On the other hand, it is found that it is possible to develop a generic and reusable workflow engine. Both components are then integrated in order to come up with a solution that supports business networking.Research limitations/implicationsIssues concerning information and document management are not addressed. Neither mechanisms of storage and retrieval of exchanged documents, nor the format/structure of those documents are specified.Practical implicationsThe paper assumes that enterprises will be willing to build up a P2P network where they will conduct their business‐to‐business (B2B) exchanges. Then, the proposed solution would allow their business processes to be linked without requiring tight coupling between their information systems.Originality/valueThe paper is useful to IT strategists and researchers dealing with WfMS, B2B integration architectures and applications of P2P technology.

As we write this editorial, people around the world are apprehensive about their future; some are at home; some are thinking about the loved ones they cannot visit; some, unfortunately, are dying. We watch the graphs and listen to the daily news of new coronavirus cases, but be it just one or one thousand, for the those close of the ones affected, the impact is catastrophic. (...)

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Pre-historic communication included doing cave paintings, for example, of wild animals. Today, we continue to use images when communicating, most notably with videos and other such recordings. The advent and popularity of social networks on the Internet is based on the exchange of messages but for the most part on the sharing of images and videos. Although we are still generally very geared toward communication using words (and numbers) rather than visual representations, we foresee that a specific language that produces movement in the brain will soon be developed. The Business Narrative Modelling Language (BNML) has been used in various research contexts. BNML is based on pictorial representations, while incorporating business ontologies, which are studies of words and language to create a vocabulary that best represents relevant meanings in the business context to optimize information exchange. Do you prefer the narrative or do you prefer visual representations or would you rather have both? Providing examples of BNML, about servant leadership, we maintain that text without figures leads to incomplete communication, and vice versa—especially true for the “Millennium generation.” Leaders in business should strive to communicate more visually and diagrammatically, encouraging such communication among their employees, as much of knowledge today is tacit, and so difficult to communicate solely with the written word. Furthermore, words should be chosen carefully, to avoid overload and lack of comprehension, and using pre-defined ontologies is a good way of achieving this.