To keep a network of enterprises sustainable, inter-organizational control measures are needed to detect or prevent opportunistic behaviour of network participants. We present a requirements engineering method for understanding control problems and designing solutions, based on an economic value perspective. The methodology employs a library of so-called control patterns, inspired by design patterns in software engineering. A control pattern is a generic solution for a common control problem. The usefulness and adequacy of the control patterns is demonstrated by a case study of the governance and control mechanisms of the Dutch public health insurance network for exceptional medical expenses (AWBZ).

We define e-business models as conceptual models that show how a network of actors (a value constellation) creates, exchanges and consumes objects of value by performing value adding activities. In this paper we present a semi-formal ontology-based representation of e-business models that is useful in carrying out a preliminary business and requirements analysis. In particular, we show that a small set of generic 'model deconstruction' operators is able to generate design variations on a given e-business model, so that upfront analysis of the characteristics and consequences of a range of alternative e-business models becomes possible. We illustrate our ontology-based e3-value approach by a commercial project on Internet news services.