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

Question 2: How has the focal dyadic relationship developed over time? What is thecurrent status of the relationship?Question 3: How do the parties in the focal dyadic relationship perceive value?Question 4: How is value co-created (through interaction) in the focal dyad?Question 5: What are theoretical and practical implications of understanding the dynamicsof value co-creation between a buyer and a seller in business markets?1.1.1 Method and materialThe study is an in-depth, exploratory case study (Stake 1978, 1994, Yin 1994) of a buyersellerdyad. The pre-understanding of the industry and phenomenon has been gainedthrough working experience. The conceptual understanding of value and value co-creationhas been gained through literature studies. The case for the empirical part of the study is onerelationship between an industrial buyer and a seller in the marine industry. The material is24 in-depth interviews with informants from both sides of the dyad. The research processcan be categorized as an abductive (Peirce 1931, Kirkeby 1994, Alvesson & Sköldberg1994, Schauman 2003, Gummesson 2001, Dubois & Gadde 2002) study where theresearcher is going back and forth between theory and practice as the research processevolves. A more thorough description of the guiding ideas, research process, and method aswell as decisions taken along the way will be given in chapter two on research approach andmethod.1.1.2 Limitations of the studyTheoretically the study is limited to study the value concept within marketing literatureapplying theories of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group, namely network theoryand the interaction approach. Other possible choices would have been a more classicaltransactional view, the value chain, the marketing mix model, or theories related to thestrategic alliances etc. However, as this study looks at a process over time and a relationshipbetween a buyer and a seller in a business-to-business context, the IMP approach can bejustified as the most appropriate.Empirically the study is limited to study one single case, a focal dyad, i.e. oneexchange relationship between an industrial buyer and a seller. A limitation of the study isthat it focuses only on one dyad instead of taking the wider network into consideration.15