This contribution is to be assigned to the operative production management of collaborative networks. By the application of incentive mechanisms, a competitive and effective management of production processes allows sustainable success. Incentives are relevant for all stages of a network lifecycle. In this paper, the problem is discussed that enterprises from a pool of cooperation-willing enterprises do not take part in a certain value-added process, even though it would be possible from the technical point of view and would also be economically reasonable. As a reason for this behavior, the utility calculus of an enterprise plays a decisive role. To convince these enterprises to collaborate in a value-added process, primarily incentive mechanisms are to be applied. In the following, this topic is taken on and is discussed extensively by means of two concrete examples. In this connection, a concrete calculation model both for the amount of incentives and the profit share is introduced.