Co-creating VAlue through Business to Business Experiences

Aim of the Project The transformation of the value creating process presents firms with questions on the roles of supplier and consumer and creates a space for exploration of the tensions inherent in these interactions. This management project seeks to add to the debate by investigating how an SME...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lockwood, Joseph Benjamin
Format: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2010
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/23569/
Description
Summary:Aim of the Project The transformation of the value creating process presents firms with questions on the roles of supplier and consumer and creates a space for exploration of the tensions inherent in these interactions. This management project seeks to add to the debate by investigating how an SME and a selected customer are interacting to create value. Methodology The methodology is an interpretive qualitative case study of The Tile Studio. The research has been informed by participant observation with the key data collected by using semi-structured interviews. The analysis looks at understandings of people’s interactions offering descriptions of experience rather than statistics. Key Findings There is evidence of ‘intuitive value co-creation’ however, adherence to value in exchange structures through established routines hinders a deeper understanding of how value creation is experienced at multiple touch-points. The firms operations tend to favour the informal and are heavily influenced by the personal, forming clusters of relationships facilitating access to relevant information for competitive advantage. Furthermore, the provision of the goods and services employed in the building of a house are relational and experiential for all parties involved. There is therefore evidence of a subject-to-subject understanding of agency in relation to the significance of the product itself. Key Conclusions The social bonds of business that are critical to the SME are synonymous with the core concept of value co-creation that locates value in the experience. In addition the hand built approach to the product creates emotional bonds that find value in meaning. This project also suggests that there needs to be further discussion on the relationship between value co-creation and organizational learning.