New framework for value chain thinking

Abstract

The competitiveness of a commercial enterprise has long been defined as its ability to achieve cost or differentiation advantage. When companies possess the same capabilities, value creation is imperative as a new source of competitive advantage whose evolution relies on cycles of value creation, value delivery, and value capture. However, previous studies of the value chain concept differ in their definition of various types of chains. This paper proposes a new framework for value chain thinking (hereafter VCT) based on appreciative inquiry and service-dominant logic. The new framework is represented in four cells, or lenses, of VCT used to map and improve a company's value chain. The four lenses include: the traditional value chain, the innovation value chain, the shared value chain and the design-driven innovation value chain. Empirical evidence for the four lenses of VCT is provided by applying the framework to a quartet of companies that are known to implement value-innovation through their commercial practices. The results show that each of the four commercial enterprises matched VCT cells using value chain mapping, with its deficiencies being successfully diagnosed and its subsequent performance enhanced by means of its specific VCT cell.