Value Creation Attributes—Clustering Strategic Options for Romanian SMEs

Alin Stancu, Alina Filip, Mihai Ioan Roșca, Daniela Ioniță, Raluca Căplescu, Andrei Cânda and Laura Daniela Roșca
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Alin Stancu: The Faculty of Marketing, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 41 Dacia Blvd, District 1, 010404 Bucharest, Romania
Alina Filip: The Faculty of Marketing, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 41 Dacia Blvd, District 1, 010404 Bucharest, Romania
Mihai Ioan Roșca: The Faculty of Marketing, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 41 Dacia Blvd, District 1, 010404 Bucharest, Romania
Daniela Ioniță: The Faculty of Marketing, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 41 Dacia Blvd, District 1, 010404 Bucharest, Romania
Raluca Căplescu: Faculty of Cybernetics, Statistics and Economic Informatics, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Virgil Madgearu building, Calea Dorobanti, no. 15-17, Sector 1, 010552 Bucharest, Romania
Andrei Cânda: iSense Solutions, IVY Office, Occidentului 3rd, 3rd floor, 010981 Bucharest, Romania
Laura Daniela Roșca: The Faculty of Marketing, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 41 Dacia Blvd, District 1, 010404 Bucharest, Romania

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-18

Abstract: Value proposition can be an important source of competitive advantage for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Unlike large companies which follow a rational and sequential process, developing a value proposition in an SME is instead a trial and error process. Therefore, those companies are experimenting with various options. The purpose of this paper was to identify the value strategies used by SMEs based on value dimensions and attributes and to find specific groups of SMEs with a similar market approach. We present a theoretical framework on customer value creation and customer value communication, followed by a quantitative research on 399 Romanian SMEs. We used a principal component analysis to reduce the number of choices and afterwards we ran a cluster analysis to identify the distinct groups of SMEs using specific value propositions. We found that there are three major strategic options based on customer experience, affordability and customization, and four distinct clusters: customer delight (A), multiple sources of differentiation (B), one-to-one marketing (C) and cost—effectiveness (D). Three groups use distinct value propositions—A focuses on customer experience, C on customization, D on affordability—while B mixes all of them.

Keywords: value creation; value attributes; SME’s; cluster analysis; quantitative marketing research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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