University of Twente Student Theses

Assessing and analyzing customers’ value-in-use to improve a supplier’s value offering in a business-to-business knowledge intensive business services context : an exploratory study

Velthuis, M. (2019) Assessing and analyzing customers’ value-in-use to improve a supplier’s value offering in a business-to-business knowledge intensive business services context : an exploratory study.

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Abstract:	Nowadays, the service business-to-business (B2B) environment is changing rapidly. The effects of, for example, increasing globalization and digitalization increase the level of competition among suppliers. As a result, allowing customers to optimize value creation becomes a key factor to obtain competitive advantage in B2B markets. In the academic world, value-in-use is increasingly employed to analyze customer value. However, research about understanding customer value through the lens of value-in-use is still very limited. In this research paper, the value-in-use of customers in a B2B knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) market is explored through semi-structured interviews. In total, 23 dimensions of value-in-use are identified across four stages of the customer service consumption process. Understanding customer value is increasingly important for B2B suppliers, because B2B customers will increasingly base their buying decisions on value creation instead of price in the future. However, no two customers are precisely alike and thus have unique demands. Surprisingly, few studies have empirically addressed differences in customer value. Therefore, the differences in customers’ value-in-use are examined to discover if customers differ significantly in what they value. The results show that the analyzed KIBS market, the professional development training market, is extremely fragmented in terms of what customers value. Another important finding is that customers in the professional development training market demand a different value-in-use based on personal characteristics and the characteristics of a professional development training course. An implication for professional development training providers is that employing tailored approaches based on, for example, geographical customer segments is no longer valid due to customer heterogeneity. To optimize the potential value creation of customers, professional development training providers are forced to employ a single flexible market approach. A flexible market approach is a partly standardized approach, but flexible enough to meet the needs of each specific customer.
Item Type:	Essay (Master)
Faculty:	BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:	81 education, teaching, 83 economics, 85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:	Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:	https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/77381
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