Where does customer value come from? An assessment of the global bicycle manufacturers industry’s product attribute, technical capability, and brands

Abstract

Customer value is an important deciding factor in the consumer’s purchase process and may be affected by firms’ explicit or implicit factors. This study explores whether customer values in the bicycle industry benefit from technical capability, product attributes, or brands. To overcome the lack of authoritative information sources in the bicycle manufacturers industry, secondary data were collected from a variety of sources, including a patent database, magazines, manufacturers’ websites and catalogues, product information, and users’ reviews. We then used principle component analysis to find the three most important factors. Multiple regression analysis was applied to evaluate if these factors influence customer value. The results show no significant relationship between technical capability and customer value. Previous studies showed that innovation and development capability, product features, and brands could benefit customer value. However, technical capability as an internal firm capability focused on research and development and may be hard for customers to recognise. Customers tend to select products with external clues, such as product attributes and brands, meaning that bicycle manufacturers should align their research and development strategy and marketing strategy to bring technical developments closer to the market to create value.