In the current global market conditions, organizations worldwide often need to come together in order to bid for, and execute projects whose requirements go beyond their individual competencies. Collaborative Networked Organisations (CNO) in their various forms of manifestation (such as Virtual Organisations or Professional Virtual Communities) are recognized to offer an advantage in a competitive situation by capitalising on the overall pool of knowledge existing in the participants. However, CNO set-up and operation includes human aspects, such as establishing partner trust and a sense of community, obtaining commitment from management, or learning about the knowledge and culture of other potential partners, which can only be effectively addressed in time. Similarly, CNO technical aspects such as the establishment of agreed business practices, common interoperability and distributed collaboration infrastructures require time that may not be always available. 'Business ecosystems', 'breeding / nesting environments', or 'company networks' may enable a prompt formation of CNOs; however, they need to be supported by effective reference models containing methods describing CNO set-up and operation. Unfortunately, such reference models are often rather generic and thus must be first specialised for the particular purpose - which requires user proficiency in the use of these reference models. The research described in this dissertation has attempted to determine whether it is possible to construct a step-by-step meta-methodology - that is, a method on how to create methods directly applicable for the design and operation of specific CNOs and their breeding environments (BEs), and to determine what factors may significantly influence this endeavour. The main finding of the research (checked and triangulated in simulations and field tests) is that it is possible - and useful - to build a meta-methodology that integrates and abstracts knowledge relating to BE / CNO creation and operation in a set of steps with associated applicability rules. The choice of architecture framework elements in the development of the meta-methodology and the creation of the particular models has been found to be an essential factor in the meta-methodology feasibility. The outcomes of the research described in this dissertation have taken the form of theoretical contributions to the enterprise architecture body of knowledge, but also of practical CNO / BE -specific set-up and operation methods, thus fulfilling the dual imperatives and purpose of the action research stance adopted by the researcher.