The Roles of Value Co-Creation in the Business-to-Business Marketing - Essay Sample

Introduction

Value co-creation endows consumers with authority to access resources provided by the company and to use those resources to produce their value needs. Arguably the most significant shift in modern business thinking, co-creation is tethered on the premise that a company is no longer the sole determiner of value, and that consumers need to be increasingly actively involved in determining their values (Cova, Dalli, & Zwick, 2011). Within the modern business-to-business environment, companies are continually co-operating in innovative and productive efforts. On the part of these companies, rather than merely regarding the customer as an end consumer, it is considered more sustainable to inculcate an environment which results into an actively engaged and mutually beneficial relationship with the customer (Anderson, Narus, & Van Rossum, 2006). This environment arises when the user is empowered to collaborate creatively in production (Vargo & Lusch, 2011). The value creation locus encompasses the personalized interaction involving the consumer and the firm, and between the consumers themselves (Andersen & Kragh, 2013).

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Value Co-Creation as A Means for Optimizing Resource Utilization

The role of value co-creation in business-to-business marketing resource optimization is not inflatable. Modern businesses consider customer perceived value as their fundamental competitive advantage (Aarikka-Stenroos, & Jaakkola, 2012). The customer-supplier relationship takes the pole position in value creation. It determines the extent and nature of the economic exchange between the parties (Aarikka-Stenroos & Jaakkola, 2012). Value emanates from the reciprocal collaboration linking suppliers to customers. In the process of this interaction, knowledge intensiveness, specialization and technological complexities are born (Cova, Dalli, & Zwick, 2011). Based on the resultant development, both the supplier and the customer become more confident of their resources and knowledge. Companies find it needful to develop extensive customer-supplier collaborations and interactions for value co-creation contexts which exhibit intricate resource exchange. This approach is essential for realizing significant transactions. Aarikka-Stenroos and Jaakkola (2012). observe that the environment that promotes value co-creation serves to inculcate a dyadic problem-solving process, particularly regarding knowledge-intensive businesses.

Problem-solving process in this context incorporates five activities (Aarikka-Stenroos, & Jaakkola, 2012). Foremost, the needs of both the customer and the supplier get diagnosed. Secondly, solutions are designed and produced with the aim of addressing these needs. Thirdly, the processes and resources involved become organized accordingly. Fourthly, value conflicts get managed. Lastly, the solutions get implemented. These five activities help to create a blueprint for resource use which when stuck with brings about efficiency. The success of business-to-business marketing transactions is a function of the extent of customer and company responsibilities in a collaborative problem-solving environment. Greater value-in-use which arises from feasible solutions are achievable through information sharing regarding the needs of the collaborating parties (Cova, Dalli, & Zwick, 2011). Both the customer and the supplier cannot depend on guessing what the other party requires in the transaction. The value co-creation process thus creates an environment of transparency and improved understanding of needs which reduces resource allocation to processes which attempt to guess what one party aims to achieve (Terho, Eggert, Ulaga, Haas, & Bohm, 2017).

Value Co-Creation as a Platform for Developing Creative Capacity

The surest path to developing competitive positions for modern businesses is through innovation. Out of innovations, businesses come up with new products and ideas. Businesses have to involve all actors to achieve this competitive advantage, activities, and resources in a manner that overlaps organizations (Cova, Dalli, & Zwick, 2011). Useful creative outputs are those that exhibit collectiveness. Mainly, businesses benefit more from creative processes founded on social interrelations and which transcend boundaries. In the business-to-business setting, this is even more vital. Businesses rely on the interactions between the suppliers and the customers to develop neoteric services and products or to enhance the quality of current services products (Vargo & Lusch, 2015). It is virtually impossible to arrive at meaningful innovation without incorporating external input.

The traditional efficiency of an organization arises from its internal culture that the employee conforms to and which reflects in the routines and schedules which help to achieve its objectives. In Andersen and Kragh (2013), creativity, when included, adds to the efficiency which businesses derive from their systems an accommodative environment for all the stakeholders. However, developing creative interactions and realizing seamless collaborations is a complex undertaking (Vargo & Lusch, 2011). Creative collaborations involve the intricate balance between depending on internal efficiencies and incorporating ideas which outwardly appear vague. Managing creativity across boundaries offers a new horizon for businesses to remain sustainable (Ranjan & Read, 2016). An enabling environment must exist which promotes the integration of external knowledge inputs.

Value co-creation addresses the constant conflict between the need for structure against the need for freedom which curtails creative capacity. Co-creation provides a platform over which reciprocal relationships occur. Traditional organizational setups are less receptive to out-of-the-box thinkers who question systems and processes even when they appear to provide value for the short-term. However, businesses that embrace co-creation are accommodative to such individuals. Additionally, as Andersen and Kragh (2013) note, in a bid to develop their creative capacity, businesses have to uphold a balance between staying adequately open to challenges that target internal systems and safeguarding the creative inputs that maintain closeness to the internal systems. As Aarikka-Stenroos and Jaakkola (2012) assert, the general environment must consider creativity as an ongoing process that involves the constant understanding of stakeholder requirements through sharing of resources and knowledge.

Value Co-Creation as an Enabler of Solution Networks

Within the globalized environment, businesses increasingly rely on outsourcing, specialization, and knowledge intensiveness (Gummesson, & Mele, 2010). This approach has driven consumers to centralize their purchases while seeking suppliers who provide excellent solutions to their needs. As such, suppliers are continuously compelled to develop integrated solution and products and services which provide the consumer with the highest potential. It is no secret that manufacturers improve their profitability and competitiveness by enhancing their primary product offerings with customized services. Jaakkola and Hakanen (2013) argue that value is the result of the integration of actors and resource application and arises from the sacrifices made in the process of interaction. On the part of the customer, the value of solutions arises from the seamless integration of resources into meaningful packages.

The understanding of how customers react to suppliers' role of taking charge of the selection and integration of resources is of great importance. It is especially so given the resultant resources compose the solutions and that the integration affects customer perceived value (Gummesson & Mele, 2010). It is noteworthy that integrated solutions become meaningful upon the inclusion of multiple actors. More specifically, a solution to the needs defined in the business-to-business marketing environment does not refer to a set of resource element but rather to the ongoing accomplishments which emanate from the interaction among all the actor involved (Gronroos, 2011b). Additionally, the role of the collaboration among actors who avail the resources that comprise the solution is essential in realizing solution outcomes.

Co-creation is central in the interplay of bonds linking actors who collaborate to build up solutions. Integrated solutions arise out of integrated resources through the interactions among the various actors (Gronroos, 2011a). Of course, resource integration and interaction among actors form the foundation of business. Business benefits which are valued by the actors involve two or more parties. A solution network refers to the collection of actors such as several suppliers connected to a single customer. Solutions networks can only exist in an environment of cooperation and meaningful engagement which arises out of value co-creation (Gummesson & Mele, 2010).

Value Co-Creation in Improving Business-to-Business Offering Strategies

According to Cova and Salle (2008) the service-dominant logic relies on three pillars; supply network, customer network, and co-creation. Industrial companies have undergone massive changes in the past decade. Specifically, the change has seen these companies transform from offering products only to offering services alongside the products and later to offering solutions (Hinterhuber, 2017). This way, industrial companies have been able to maintain their competitive advantage within a dynamic business environment. In their study, Cova and Salle (2008) determined that current customer solutions embody the new service-dominant logic. Marketing traditionally relied on the exchange of goods, initially borrowed from economics. As such, the business environment related to a goods-dominant logic which was transactional with the value determined by a single actor. As Gummesson, & Mele (2010) observe, years of shifting focus on the role of all actors have seen the maintained competitive edge among individual companies and the fall of others.

The service-dominant B2B offering strategies recognize both customers and suppliers as resource integrators (Vargo & Lusch, 2015). Service-dominant logic defines an environment in which the customer is part of the co-creation of value, and the organization is a partner in the entire value network (Gronroos, 2011a). The more effective offering strategies recognize that each entity deserves to collaborate with other entities for a practical solution network to arise. All the supply chain partners and the customer are integral parts of the marketing process. A magnified view of an efficient marketing process proceeds from a value chain to a constellation of actors whose interrelation serve to create value symbiotically (Gronroos, 2011b).

Offering strategies have transformed in response to customer value propositions beginning in the 1990 (Gronroos, 2011b). Whereas the product remains the initiator of the linkage between suppliers and customers, profitability originates from the supplementary services around the product. Moving from a product-centric offer to a service-centric offer is a complex undertaking. While suppliers can carry out specific research on products, they with regards to the customer for whom the value is intended, this approach is limited (Vargo & Lusch, 2015). Accordingly, then, the customer must be willing to provide the supplier with the understanding of value which befits their needs. Customers have to play the central role of co-creators of value for companies to realize their goals (Hinterhuber, 2017).

Value Co-Creation in Facilitating the Realization of Mutual Value in B2B Relationships

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