Value Creation Chain Research Articles

Analiza procesów kształtujących łańcuch wartości przedsiębiorstwa

Today's enterprises are forced to identify and change the whole chain of value creation for the customer, which usually extends beyond its borders. An important stage in the analysis of an enterprise's value chain is identifying the processes carried out in the organisation and evaluating how effectively and efficiently they are achieved, which is possible by establishing and developing specific measures and methods of measuring these processes. The purpose of this article is to provide a method for increasing the value of the enterprise, based on the analysis of processes involved in the enterprise's value chain. The paper explains the basic concepts of process, system processes and process management, defines the value chain and shows the structure of the processes that shape it. The main part of the article presents the methodology of the analysis process, which consists of the following stages: identifying the processes carried out in the enterprise, indicating the role of the processes in creating added value for the customer, measurement and evaluation of the results of processes, and determining process improvement proposals.

The role of negotiation in the purchasing strategy aimed at creating value

Purchasing is increasingly becoming a strategic function, whose decisions are based on the philosophy and policy of value creation and the reduction of total costs in the supply chain. Long-term partnerships are built with suppliers. In the process, partners specialize in performing the activities of their core competences and strategic advantages. The purchasing departments include suppliers in development projects and product value analyses when solving logistics problems and other strategic tasks in order to achieve the best possible results. The goal is to lower the total costs of the value creation chain, starting from the sub-suppliers, through suppliers and their own company, to the end users, and to increase the benefits to the end consumer of goods or services. In today's hyper-competitive environment in which the struggle to win market space is becoming ever more aggressive and more dynamic and in which only those companies that have incorporated in their business environment a high level of flexibility, innovation and competitiveness, negotiation becomes a rounded business process and one of the crucial sources of competitive advantages. The strategic importance of the role of purchasing has made negotiation significantly a more complex and a more dynamic process that has a direct impact on the achievement of business results. The strategic importance of negotiation is reflected in its everyday use in governing and management of a company, which is becoming more dependent on teamwork, but also on the more emphasized role it plays in the inorganic strategies of growth by mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances with others. Strategic and systemic approach to the negotiation process offers the opportunity for the creation of new organizational capabilities where, by using different techniques and tools, the participants strive to maximize the value of each of the company's activities. By investing in an efficient bargaining system based on the ability and skill of the human capital, it is possible to achieve goals that lead to the creation of value and increase of the overall business results.

Regional integration policies to support job creation for Africa’s burgeoning youth population

Africa is going through a youth bulge with more people under 25 than above 50 in all of its countries. Creating opportunities for the burgeoning number of youth is a challenge that cannot be solved only at the country level. Regional integration policies that expand the opportunity space by increasing the size of economies and markets will be critical. Also needed are regional policies that can support the development and enhancement of innovation systems including investment in science and technology education to speed up the creation of a cadre of young people that can lead the transformation of stages of production from dependencies on primary products and extraction. Policies and Programs that can modernize agriculture and support effective creation of value chains that enhance the value added from agriculture that can excite youth back to the rural areas would also be needed. This paper explores the challenges facing countries in Africa in relation to it’s demographic transition, investigating the type of policies that would be most effective to address the challenge. The subsets of policies at the regional level are given special attention due to their opportunity expanding nature. Concrete examples of what has potential from observed results in other regions of the world are provided.

Change of Governance in the Organization Value Chain: The Case of the High-tech Industries in Taiwan†

Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: We study the evolution of the governance of the organization value chain in Taiwan's high-tech industry, whose pattern seems to defy the prediction of the well-established theories such as transaction cost, resource dependence, or network perspectives. Research Findings/Insights: Using the three most important sectors in Taiwan's high-tech industry as cases, we map out the evolutionary path each sector took, and demonstrate that the change of governance mode between upstream and downstream firms is shaped by the interaction of technology, capital munificence, and relative profitability throughout the lifecycle of these industries. Specifically, we find that at the beginning stage with high technology uncertainty and relatively high profitability, the governance mode in Taiwan's high-tech industries moves toward a network model. At the mature stage when technology is certain and capital is abundant, the governance mode moves toward the market model for technology complexity and high profitability or toward the hierarchy model if the complexity and profitability are low. Theoretical/Academic Implications: Our analyses suggest that the contingent approach based on the three key factors (technology, capital munificence, and relative profitability) is more suitable in explaining the change of governance mode in the value creation chain in a rapidly changing environment, and thus provides a better prediction on the changes of governance mode than the previously used theories. Practitioner/Policy Implications: Our study has managerial implications for firms that have evolved from small and medium-sized enterprises into large, integrated business groups. The latter cannot rely on traditional network relations for business management and have to move toward the market model or the hierarchy model.

Decision and Design Methodologies for the Lay-Out of Modular Dies for High-Pressure-Die-Cast-Processes

Within the project “Decision and design methodology for the lay-out of modular dies” which is part of the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries”, established and financed by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the main objective is setting guidelines for cost-effective and high quality high pressure die casting (HPDC) moulds. The strong increase in product variants and the growing demand for individualised products results in a growing complexity of all related products. The main objective of this project is bridging the existing gap between individual manufacturing and mass production. A new perspective on the value creation chain of HPDC-dies has to be established. First of all, the methodology for the lay-out of modular dies consists in an analysis of the already produced die cast moulds. For the development of modules, standard parts, and different die types, a wide range of HPDC-dies will be compared with each other and subsequently clustered along specific criteria such as size or number of core sliders. Another step consists in optimising setting-up time and maintenance. The as-is state in different companies will be examined. With this knowledge, new concepts will be developed, keeping a modular configuration of the different parts involved in mind. Concepts for modular core sliders, guides and ejectors will be developed and will be investigated for further use. Based on this information, the decision and design methodology for the lay-out of modular HPDC -dies will be examined and developed throughout the process.

Trade, Hierarchy, and Cooperation in the Age of Globalization

In the course of globalization, the intensity of global interactions between nations, firms, and civil society actors has increased significantly and has led to the creation of transnational norm-building networks. These have an essential, but little-known influence on all aspects of life (business and work relationships, environment, security, law, trust, etc.). Their influence expands to nation-state and market relationships that are also subject to constant reorganization. Transnational networks are leading to a global civil society that is more and more independent of the nation-state. With this relative erosion of state domination, the standard economic perspective, which primarily focused on the nation-state, is eroding as well.In this paper we review economic approaches dealing with different forms of hierarchy and cooperation in the age of globalization. And yet, we focus on the discourse on value creation chains as an essential element of transnational networks and a potential catalyst for technological progress and economic development in developing and transition countries. Moreover, we outline fruitful combinations of different economic approaches that in future may help to achieve a better understanding of global civil society autonomy and transnational networks.

Preface: phys. stat. sol. (a) 205/12

AbstractPhoton Management in Solar CellsBy definition, photovoltaics is the transformation of the electro‐magnetic energy of solar light into electricity. Thus, photons stand at the beginning and electrons stand at the end of this value creation chain, respectively. Thus, photovoltaics investigates and optimizes all processes taking place in‐between the advent of a photon on the surface and the output of electrical energy at the terminals of the solar cell or module. It is instructive to note that the maximum efficiency of photovoltaic energy conversion as described by the Shockley–Queisser limit makes no specific assumption on those processes in‐between, aside from perfection: Any arriving photon generates an elementary electrical charge that is readily available at the electrical terminals of the device. The only physical quantity entering in the Shockley–Queisser theory and thereby connecting the photonic input with the electronic output is a threshold energy, often the band gap energy of the semiconductor used for the solar cell. This energy defines the energetic range of usable photons, simultaneously the available voltage at the terminals, and finally the maximum power conversion efficiency.If perfect photovoltaic materials were abundantly available as well as straight‐forward methods to combine them into perfect photovoltaic devices with marginal cost, any further photovoltaic research would be pointless. As a matter of fact, this situation is still somewhat ahead because almost perfect materials and devices, though yet feasible to a certain extent, are still far too expensive for large scale energy production. Meanwhile photovoltaics must cope with imperfections and this immediately implies a clever management of both particles involved in the process, electrons as well as photons.This special issue of physica status solidi (a) contains eleven invited papers from the 398th Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Seminar ‘Photon Management in Solar Cells’ which took place from 29 October to 1 November 2007 in the Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, Germany. This seminar was jointly organized by two German national projects ‘Nanosun’ funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG, project number pak88) and ‘Nanovolt’ funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, project number 03SF0322H). The term ‘photon management’ was coined in an early stage of these projects and has become nowadays almost commonplace for recent efforts to improve solar cells by means of modern optics including diffractive optics, photonic crystals and plasmonics.The fundamental interdependence of optical and electronic properties in solar cells, the reciprocity of photovoltaic and electroluminescent action, is subject of the paper by Thomas Kirchartz and Uwe Rau. Tom Markvart investigates the entropy generation by non‐radiative and by radiative recombination in solar cells. Andreas Gombert and Antonio Luque review the current state‐of‐the‐art of photonics in photovoltaics and describe future requirements. The following contributions present theoretically and experimentally novel concepts of photon management in solar cells. Karsten Bittkau and coworkers revisit randomly textured substrates, Matthias Kroll, Stephan Fahr et al. 1D and 2D diffractive structures in solar cells, and Andreas Bielawny et al. intermediate reflectors based on 3D photonic crystals for thin film solar cells. External light management by optically functionalized fluorescence collectors is subject of the contribution by Jan Christoph Goldschmidt and coworkers. Upconversion systems based on rare‐earth‐ion doped phosphors and glass ceramics for solar cells are discussed by Stefan Schweizer et al. Ultra‐light trapping by direction selective filters for solar cells is presented by Carolin Ulbrich et al. and the application of plasmonics to photovoltaics by Florian Hallermann, Carsten Rockstuhl et al. Finally, a review on light trapping in organic solar cells and future requirements is presented by Michael Niggemann and coworkers.We would like to thank the German Science Foundation (DFG), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation for financial support. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Customer Relationship Management in the Service Sector-An Overview

The author has made an attempt to explore in depth the role of customer relationship management in the service sector. During the past decade services have increasingly assumed an important role in the Indian economy and virtually all companies view service as critical to retaining their customers to-day and in the future. The only factor, which gave companies the competitive edge, is the long-term relationship with customers, not just loyalty schemes, a help desk, or collection of customer data without undertaking detailed segmentation. CRM focuses more widely on the customers and on the entire functions connected with value creation and delivery chain of the service organizations. This is possible through the integration of four important components i. e. people, process, technology and data. We need to recognize that computers and packages are only the tools and it is up to us to decide our purpose and make use of mix of tools.

Value‐relevant information on corporate intangibles – creation, use, and barriers in capital markets – “between a rock and a hard place”

The article reveals a need for greater understanding and use of corporate intellectual capital (IC) information within two connected capital market areas. Firstly with regard to the conceptualisation and valuation process these capital market agents (analysts and fund managers) conduct. Secondly, within the capital market agents' own value creation chain. The concept of the value creation chain is combined with an analysis of the barriers faced by capital market agents represented by fund managers and analysts. These barriers are proposed to comprise knowledge, uncertainty, ownership and management problems. In addition, cultural pressures within analyst and fund manager communities are viewed as contributors to information barriers. Such problems are exacerbated by additional market induced problems of severe time constraints and conflicts of interest.

Open content and value creation

The borderline between production and consumption of media content is not so clear as it used to be. For example on the Internet, many people put a lot of effort into producing personal homepages in the absence of personal compensation. They publish everything from holiday pictures to complete Web directories. Illegal exchange of media material is another important trend that has a negative impact on the media industry. In this paper, I consider open content as an important development track in the media landscape of tomorrow. I define open content as content possible for others to improve and redistribute and/or content that is produced without any consideration of immediate financial reward ? often collectively within a virtual community. The open content phenomenon can to some extent be compared to the phenomenon of open source. Production within a virtual community is one possible source of open content. Another possible source is content in the public domain. This could be sound, pictures, movies or texts that have no copyright, in legal terms. Which are the driving forces for the cooperation between players that work with open content? This knowledge could be essential in order to understand the dynamics of business development, technical design and legal aspects in this field. In this paper I focus on these driving forces and the relationships between these players. I have studied three major open content projects. In my analysis, I have used Gordijnos (2002) value modeling method "e3value", modified for open content value creation and value chains. Open content value chains look much the same as commercial value chains, but there are also some major differences. In a commercial value chain, the consumerso needs trigger the entire chain of value creation. My studies indicate that an open content value chain is often triggered by what the creators and producers wish to make available as open content. Motivations in non-monetary forms play a crucial role in the creation of open content value chains and value. My study of these aspects is based on Feller and Fitzgeraldos (2002) three perspectives on motivations underlying participation in the creation of open source software.

The Creation of Value through a Specialized Distribution Network

Within the value creation chain of an insurance company the role of sales networks is fundamental, as creating shareholder value is strictly linked with creating customer value.

Intellectual capital and the capital market – organisation and competence

This paper explores the organisation of the information market and its ability to process intellectual capital information for capital markets. Discusses also incentives for market participants to create and use information on the role of intellectual capital (IC) in corporate value creation, and the capability of the market for information to process and use such information in the stock market valuation of companies. Particular attention is paid to corporate disclosure of, and fund manager use of, such information. The analysis also extends the idea of a knowledge‐intensive value creation process to fund managers and analysts. Problems within corporate, fund manager, and analysts knowledge‐intensive value creation chains are considered to be a source of barriers to the creation and use of corporate IC information in markets. Further research on these chains and barriers is required to improve the flow of IC information into stock prices.

Measuring to understand intangible performance drivers

The present qualitative study explores what 11 Swedish organizations have systematically worked at to increase the understanding of the importance of intangibles as performance drivers. The present analysis is accomplished using a combination of evolutionary theory, knowledge-based theory and organizational learning. The results indicate that assets in an accounting sense seem to be of less interest than perceptions of activities that enable future performance. These 'enablers' are often customer and employee perceptions of individual, organizational, and relational competence. The way for the firms to ascertain a continuous organizational learning process with respect to the value creation chain is to measure intangibles as well as to maintain organizational routines that ensure the transformation of measurement results into action.

Measuring to understand intangible performance drivers

The present qualitative study explores what eleven Swedish organizations have systematically worked at to increase the understanding of the importance of intangibles as performance drivers. The present analysis is accomplished using a combination of evolutionary theory, knowledge-based theory and organizational learning. The results indicate that assets in an accounting sense seem to be of less interest than perceptions of activities that enable future performance. These “enablers” are often customer and employee perceptions of individual, organizational and relational competence. The way for the firms to ascertain a continuous organizational learning process with respect to the value creation chain is to measure intangibles as well as to maintain organizational routines that ensure the transformation of measurement results into action.

Productivity by Systemic Rationalization: Good Work Bad Work No Work?

Since the 'Crisis of Taylorism' in the 1970s, 'new forms of work organization' have been developed that were intended to contain better, if not 'good', work characterized by factors such as vocational qualification, personnel development, participation, and so forth. It is precisely these factors which are endangered by the prevailing strategies of 'systemic rationalization'. In pursuing these strategies, dominant companies aim to reorganize production and value creation chains in order to harness heterogeneous company situations within the production networks so as to increase total productivity. The results consist of either the stabilization or progressive polarization of employee working conditions and new problems regarding in-company interest representation and interest representation by unions. The material and descriptions presented are based on empirical findings gathered from the German automotive industry.