Value Co-Creation in Industrial Buyer-Seller Partnerships ... - Doria

exists, the value co-creation potential is realizable through exploiting interdependencies.Those interdependencies are the trigger for value co-creation potential. The value cocreationpotential is realized though different processes of value co-creation either toachieve efficiency in exchange or effective use of resources. The logic of buyer-sellerpartnerships is to create and exploit interdependencies in order to create both efficiency andeffective use of resources.8.3.1 Contributions of the studyThe contributions of the study can be divided into theoretical contribution, empiricalcontribution, and methodological contribution. I present each of the different contributionsin brief in the sections below.Theoretical contributionApplying traditional economic theories on marketing, the marketer is seen as the activeparty who tries to get the customers to buy. However the IMP school proposes that we rethinkmarketing and open up our eyes to a different way of seeing markets as interactingcompanies that create value together through interacting with each other. Penrose as early as1959 argued that the outcome of exchange activity is dependent on how the resources ofcompanies are activated. The IMP interpretation of this is that the core of marketingconsequently is about creating combinations of resources to create the desired outcome(Håkansson et al. 2004). This study contributes to the IMP view on relationships andnetworks on industrial markets and supports the assumption of relationships being longtermand carachterized by two active parties. The study also contributes to IMP theory bydemonstrating a case where the relationship has developed from a buying-selleing orproducing-using type of business interaction to a relationship where the parties areinteracting and creating interdependencies in order to achieve more than one party could doalone.The case presented in this study demonstrates how two interacting parties havedeveloped a partnership and through this process of becoming partners created a possibilityspace, where value co-creation can take place. Value co-creation occurs only when thesituational factors are right, when the parties tolerate and accept interdependence so thatjoint problem solving and innovating become possible. Only placing problems on the tableand being open about possibilities enables value co-creation potential to be realized.177