BNET Business Dictionary

Business Definition for: Value Chain

  • the sequence of business activities by which, in the perspective of the end user, value is added to products or services produced by an organization
  • the sequence of activities a company performs in order to design, produce, market, deliver, and support its product or service. The concept of the value chain was first suggested by Michael Porter in 1985, to demonstrate how value for the customer accumulates along the chain of organizational activities that make up the final customer product or service. Porter describes two different types of business activity: primary and secondary. Primary activities are concerned principally with transforming inputs, such as raw materials, into outputs, in the form of products or services, delivery, and after-sales support. Secondary activities support the primary activities and include procurement, technology development, and human resource management. All of these activities form part of the value chain and can be analyzed to assess where opportunities for competitive advantage may lie. To survive competition and supply what customers want to buy, the firm has to ensure that all value chain activities link together, even if some of the activities take place outside the organization.
  • the most traditional approach to exploring career prospects, which involves identifying the nextâ€"most obviousâ€"move in a career path. The next step is usually assumed to be the role occupied by a manager.

Additional Resources

Value Chain Profiling
This paper presents a framework for value chain profiling developed by researchers at Sintef and NTNU, within SMARTLOG, a research program funded by the Norwegian research council. The framework is a first step in an attempt to develop a value chain description scheme, and the purpose of the framework is...
Tags: Value Chain, Channel Management, Marketing
White papers 2004-10-01
The Value Chain
To better understand the activities, through which a firm develops a competitive advantage and creates shareholder value, it is useful to separate the business system into a series of value-generating activities referred to as value chain. Michael Porter introduced a generic value chain model that comprises a sequence of activities...
Tags: Value Chain, Activity, Channel Management, Marketing
White papers 2003-01-01
The Innovation Value Chain
The Idea in Brief ...
Tags: Innovation, Morten T. Hansen, Julian Birkinshaw, Strategy, Leadership, Kanter, Value Chain, Idea, In Brief, Harvard Business Review, Product Development, Brainstorming, Management
Articles 2007-11-07
The Dynamic Value Chain: Quickly Reducing Complexity
Dynamic value chain management increases responsiveness across organizational structures. Communication between functional areas improves overall supply chain effectiveness. Dynamic value chain management DVCM is a business methodology that helps companies manage marketplace variability and complexity and align company strategies with execution processes. DVCM helps transform a value chain into a...
Tags: Montgomery Research Inc., Value Chain, Dynamic Value Chain Management, Channel Management, Marketing
White papers 2002-05-16
The Success Factors of Mobile Advertising Value Chain
This article aims to obtain a comprehensive understanding of mobile advertising (m-advertising) value chain from industry's point of view on one hand, and from consumer's viewpoint on the other hand. In this paper the authors develop a model describing the critical success factors of m-advertising value chain. This 5C model...
Tags: Mobile, Value Chain, C, University Of Oulu, Channel Management, C/C++, Marketing, Programming Languages, Software Development, Software/Web Development
White papers 2004-02-24
Knowledge Value Chain: Implementation of New Product Development System in a Winery
This paper discusses the positive influence that knowledge creation exerts over organizational performance in regard to collaborative learning environmental and quality uncertainty. The paper shows the Knowledge Value Chain KVC would be the best means of expressing the environment and quality condition into corporation rather than the normal value chain...
Tags: Knowledge, New Product Development, University Of South Australia, Strategy, Management
White papers 2005-02-08
Now It's A Job For THE CEO.(top-level value-chain collaboration)
New IW survey examines the benefits--and barriers--associated with top-level value-chain collaboration. THERE WAS A TIME WHEN TOP-RANKING executives in manufacturing tended to distance themselves from such operational details as supply-chain management or information sharing with upstream and downstream partners in the "value...
Tags: barrier, collaboration, Ernst & Young LLP, job, MARKETING, performance, Strategy, supplier, survey
Research articles 2000-03-20
Value Chain Management And Logistics
The journey of a product starts from the point where raw materials are procured from the suppliers. Then the product passes through several stages until it reaches the customer. At every subsequent stage, some amount of value is imparted to the product until it comes out as the finished product...
Tags: Value Chain, Logistics, University Of Missouri, Channel Management, Marketing
Presentations 2003-01-01
M2M Magazine Selects ServicePower for Value Chain Award; ServicePower recognized for deployment of critical value chain elements, resulting in winning solution for GE Consumer and Industrial
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- ServicePower, which offers tools that enable optimized service execution across the entire service chain, today announced that it has been recognized by M2M Magazine as a bronze winner in its M2M United Conference Value Chain Awards program. M2M Magazine, which is dedicated to covering the machine-to-machine communication...
Tags: General Electric Co., M2M, value chain
Research articles 2006-07-20
Moving a Slow-Clockspeed Business Into the Fast Lane: Strategic Sourcing Lessons From Value Chain Redesign in the Automotive Industry
Stimulated by the creation of a global integrated organization for powertrain (engine, transmission, and controls) engineering and manufacturing at General Motors under the leadership of Arvin Mueller, a team of managers and analysts was created to perform a sweeping analysis of value chain strategy for the General Motors Powertrain organization...
Tags: Channel Management, General Motors Corp., Marketing, PRTM, Strategic Sourcing, Value Chain
White papers 2001-12-01
Disaggregation Of The Value Chain: Emergence Of New Business Models In Strategy Consulting
The paper explores the predominant driving-forces shaping the strategy consulting industry. Clients have become more demanding and their skill gaps in relation to strategy consultants are narrowing. The instant availability of global information has precipitated an erosion of the competitive advantage of integrated players running internal research and knowledge building...
Tags: Value Chain, University Of St. Gallen, Channel Management, Strategy, Marketing, Management
White papers 2004-04-29
Indus Customer Xcel Energy Wins M2M Magazine Value Chain Award; Utility Innovations Recognized as Top Technology Initiative in Energy Industry
ATLANTA -- Indus International Inc. (NASDAQ: IINT), a leading provider of Service Delivery Management SDMTM solutions, today announced that Indus customer Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) has been named the winner of M2M Magazine's 2005 Value Chain Gold Award for the energy industry. The awards honor the most successful adopters of...
Tags: M2M, Xcel Energy Inc.
Research articles 2005-06-29
Harvard Business Review on Managing the Value Chain.(Review) (book review)
Harvard Business Review on Managing the Value Chain Harvard Business School Press, 2000 271 pages, $19.95 ISBN 1-57851-234-4 To order: Call (888) 500-1016 or visit www.hbsp.harvard.edu Anthologies can be a mixed bag. At best, the reader benefi Harvard Business...
Tags: Harvard Business Review, Managing, value chain
Research articles 2000-05-01
i2, the i2 User Group And The META Group To Judge 'Ken Sharma Award for Excellence' Recognizing Industry Best Practices In Value Chain Transformation.
DALLAS, TEXAS, AUG 20, 2001 - Applications, available online at i2.com, are due September 3, 2001 The i2 User Group and i2 Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:ITWO), the leading provider of dynamic value chain solutions, today announced the introduction of the...
Tags: E-business/E-commerce, i2 Technologies Inc., INTERNET, MARKETING, META Group Inc.
Research articles 2001-08-20
New INDUSTRYWEEK/Ernst & Young Research Measures Impact of Value-Chain Management; Formal Value-Chain Strategies Improve Manufacturers' Financial Performance
Business Editors CLEVELAND--BUSINESS WIRE--March 14, 2000 Just how much impact can managing the synchronized flow of product, information, processes, and cash from raw materials to end customers have on a company's profitability and productivity? Plenty, considering that manufacturers who pursue a formal value-chain management strategy not only benefit...
Tags: Ernst & Young LLP, MARKETING, Penton Media Inc.
Research articles 2000-03-14
Cantaloupe Systems Corp. received M2M Magazine's Gold Value Chain Award for its innovative SEED M2M Wireless Platform of products for the retail vending industry.(VENDING MARKET WATCH NEWS FINAL)
Cantaloupe Systems Corp. received M2M Magazine's Gold Value Chain Award for its innovative SEED M2M Wireless Platform of products for the retail vending industry. From hundreds of nominees, a panel of industry analysts judged the entries and awarded Cantaloupe, along with its customers Frito-Lay Inc. and...
Tags: Frito-Lay Inc.
Research articles 2005-09-01
Performance Management - Remedy for Value Chain Ills
A supply chain simply moves products across multiple trading partners whereas a value chain generates a profit accomplishing this. Measuring true performance, not just hundreds of metrics destined for little use in briefing books, is a major challenge for supply chain managers. Increasingly measures must widen their horizon beyond the...
Tags: Montgomery Research Inc., Supply Chain, Performance, Value Chain, Remedy Corp., Supply Chain Management (SCM), Channel Management, Performance Management, Enterprise Software, Software, Marketing, Human Resources, Workforce Management
White papers 2004-06-15
Total Value Chain Learning: A Feature Of The High-Performance Learning Organization
Learning programs for channel partners have both quantitative and qualitative benefits. Looking just at the hard numbers, a number of corporate universities are finding that such programs can cut costs and also contribute to revenue growth. ST University, for example, the corporate university of ST Microelectronics, has opened its university...
Tags: Accenture Ltd., Value Chain, University, High-performance, Channel Management, Marketing
White papers 2009-01-01
Mutual Funds Bring Information Tech Support To Value Chain.(Brief Article)
If clients are looking for the added value that a producer can bring to a relationship, producers, in turn, are looking for the same sort of value from the insurers and mutual fund families that they rely on for product. That value chain starts...
Tags: advisor, Benefits, Fidelity Investments, FINANCE, Investment, Technology
Research articles 2001-04-30
Walgreens Receives Value Chain Leadership Award
Nation's Largest Retail Pharmacy Chain Recognized by SupplyScape for Leadership in Transforming the Pharmaceutical Value Chain
Tags: value chain, Walgreen Co.
Research articles 2007-08-14