This thesis is structured in five chapters. The first chapter is an introductory chapter for the reader to the motivation, the context in which the work was carried out, and the objectives of the thesis.

The second chapter reviews the literature and presents an introduction to theory of business process management and the most important frameworks and projects of collaborative networks.

The third chapter explains the methodology used to identify and describe the business processes and practices and its empirical validation.

The fourth chapter is divided into two parts: the first presents an overview of the reference model and the second characterizes the business processes and practices.

The fifth chapter is the conclusion. It’s divided into two parts: the first presents the results and conclusions and the second points out considerations in terms of what can be developed in the future.