Customer value creation in B2B relationships: Sawn timber value chain perspective

Marika Makkonen and Henna Sundqvist-Andberg

Journal of Forest Economics, 2017, vol. 29, issue PB, 94-106

Abstract: The ability to facilitate superior customer value creation is critical for firms’ long-term success. The topic has been studied extensively in marketing literature, but less consideration has been given to customer orientation and customer value creation in the forestry context. Through 18 qualitative interviews with suppliers and customers in the Finnish sawn timber value chain, sawmills’ customer orientation was analyzed. We find that the concept of customer orientation was realized rather narrowly at sawmills and customer orientation appeared as random actions instead of a systematic part of firms’ organization culture. Customers’ needs are more manifold and extend beyond product characteristics and process efficiency. The main challenge hindering the renewal of product-oriented business models toward service logic and customer orientation seems to be in attitudes and traditions.

Keywords: Customer orientation; Sawmill industry; Wood products industry; Value creation; Customer value (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 L73 M21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1104689917300879
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:foreco:v:29:y:2017:i:pb:p:94-106

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/701775/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 701775/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.jfe.2017.08.007

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Forest Economics is currently edited by P. Gong and R. Brännlund

More articles in Journal of Forest Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().