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

Figure 5.2: The actors and the setup in the shipbuilding contextThe shipyard is the construction site for the ship on which the diesel engines in this case areinstalled. The shipyard makes constant efforts in marketing and selling its services to shipowners around the world. For each new project the owner chooses with great care theshipyard that is going to get the new building project.What makes the setup challenging and interesting for an equipment supplier, in thiscase for the Seller, is that the supplier works with two customers that have different needs.The Seller faces a market with two main customer segments that both require a differentapproach when it comes to sales, project work, and relationship management. On one handthere is the ship owner or operator who has a long-term focus and who is concerned aboutoperational efficiency in the long run; and on the other hand there is the shipyard thatconstructs the ship and wants to make a profit on sales while maintaining a goodrelationship in anticipation of new projects. For the Seller this obviously poses a challengewith regard to relationship management. The challenge is manifold; balancing between the91