نقش صلاحیت ها در ایجاد ارزش مشتری : رویکرد منطقی ایجاد ارزش

This paper addresses the issue through what kind of competences companies are producing value for their business customers. First, a value typology, clarifying the complex character of value, is constructed, together with suggestions on how the question of value creation can be framed. In order to understand and manage supplier–customer relationships, it essential to comprehend how both customers and suppliers perceive value and their roles in value creation. The matching of customers' and suppliers' perspectives is discussed by developing a framework depicting the business-to-business marketing types. Then the competences needed for creating value for customers and suppliers alike are examined by identifying what kind of competences are required in each marketing type.

What constitutes value in business-to-business marketing, how is value perceived by the supplier and by the customer, through what kind of competences and processes is value produced? Golfetto and Gibbert, the Guest Editors of the Special Issue on “Creating value for the customer through competence-based marketing.” suggest that suppliers and customers do not always agree on what constitutes ‘value.’ In their words, “Whereas suppliers still focus on the level of products, buyers are more interested in suppliers' competences, e.g. the ‘availability’ of the supplier, the efficient delivery of the supplier's solution, and the supplier's expertise in the customer's own business.” These questions and the point made are related to an important discussion on the ability of the Resource-Based View (RBV) (e.g. Barney, 1991, Barney, 2001 and Wernerfelt, 1984) to offer a viable theory of competitive advantage. Several marketing and strategic management authors argue that RBV, because of its basically intra-organisational orientation, does not adequately cover the fundamental processes by which resources are transformed into something that is of value for customers (Priem and Butler, 2001, Srivastava et al., 2001 and Zerbini et al., 2003). Although RBV recognizes that “the value of the firm's resources and capabilities is determined by the market context within which the firm is operating.” (Barney, 2001, 645) and that such marketing related resources as brands and customer and distribution relationships are valuable (Srivastava et al., 2001) it does not address the processes of transforming resources and capabilities into customer value. This is paradoxical as these processes can be considered as highly important competences themselves. Golfetto (2003, p. 7) expresses this eloquently “…the market-based-competences view requires the supplier to develop a clear understanding of its own competences, not so much in ‘internal terms’, but in terms of customer benefits.”

The article offers several contributions to both the emerging theory of value production in business marketing and the competences involved and to the management of value creation from the perspective of both the supplier and customer. First, the paper contributes a value-system continuum with the three basic modes of value-production for identifying the dominant characteristics and value-production logic in different supplier–buyer contexts. It is essential to understand the differences between the three value-production types — core value production in stable and well-established exchange markets, value-added value production via incremental innovation and change, carried out by relational exchange, and future value production via radical innovation and emerging networks — as these exert a strong influence on the roles of suppliers and customers and the competences required from them. By highlighting the characteristics of each value-production type, the value-system framework provides an abstract but powerful contingency-view based clarification of the managerial challenges faced by firms engaging in different types of value production. The emphasis on understanding the relational logic of value production where the competences of both suppliers and customers are required is a novel contribution to the resource-based view of the firm which has primarily been silent of the customer's role in value production. The suggested value production framework is an important addition to the emerging market-based-competences theory. Second, by suggesting a matrix framework distinguishing the basic value strategies of suppliers and buyers and their joint efforts this article identifies and discusses the managerial competences involved in each strategic mode. This analysis provided a number of insights for competence-based business marketing. There is strong competitive pressure on the producing and marketing offerings providing the core value for the customers. In order to be able to provide their customers with as cost efficient offerings as possible (cost per perceived benefits) the supplier firms are increasingly creating coordinated supply nets operating by demand–pull. This requires specific net coordination competences; mastering these helps such outstanding suppliers as Cisco, DELL and Nokia to achieve shorter lead-times, customer preferred delivery schedules and lot sizes, and cost reductions.