Value appropriation in business exchange – literature review and future research opportunities

Abstract

Purpose -Value appropriation is a central, yet neglected aspect in business exchange research. The purpose of the paper is to generate an overview of research on active value appropriation in business exchange and provide the foundation for further research into value appropriation, as well as some initial guidance for managers.Design/methodology/approach -Literatures investigating value appropriation were identified by the means of a systematic review of the overall management literature.Findings -We provide an overview and comparison of the literatures and find that they apply diverse understandings of the value appropriation process and emphasize different mechanisms and outcomes of value appropriation.Research limitations/implications -Based on the literature comparison and discussion, in combination with inspiration from alternative business exchange literature, we propose four areas with high potential for future research into value appropriation: network position effects, appropriation acts and behaviors, buyer-seller relationship effects, and appropriation over time.Practical implications -Boundary spanning managers acting in industrial markets must master the difficult balance between value creation and appropriation. This review has provided an overview of the many managerial options for value appropriation and created knowledge on the effects of the various appropriation mechanisms enabling managers to secure company rents while not jeopardizing value creation.Originality/value -To our knowledge, this paper represents the first attempt at reviewing the management literature on value appropriation in business exchange. We provide overview, details, comparisons, and frame a research agenda as a first step towards establishing value appropriation as a key phenomenon in business exchange research.

Value assessment and pricing capabilities—how to profit from value

“…Hence value assessment and pricing capabilities are closely related, and viewing them as firm capabilities emphasizes a holistic perspective where value creation and value appropriation cut across a multitude of functions of the firm. This is in line with the recent calls in marketing literature to connect business processes that cut across traditional organizational silos, especially related to value creation and value appropriation (Bolton, 2006;Ellegaard et al, 2014).…”

“…However, as modern B2B markets have become more complex, several studies have illustrated difficulties encountered by sales and pricing organizations when trying to appropriate and capture value from customer engagements (for example, Hinterhuber, 2008a;Ellegaard et al, 2014;Ulaga and Loveland, 2014). In reality, delivering, evaluating, and capturing value has increasingly become a cross-functional and firm-wide effort that goes beyond the sales or pricing unit's responsibilities (Sheth and Sharma, 2008).…”

“…1 Prior research on capabilities has to a large extent focused on the role in value creation or cost reduction in order to gain a competitive advantage (Peteraf and Barney, 2003). However, several scholars (for example, Pitelis, 2009;Pitelis and Teece, 2009;Ellegaard et al, 2014) have emphasized the importance of capabilities required to appropriate value and the interaction between value creation and value appropriation capabilities of the firm. Among the studies of capabilities that focus on appropriation we find work related to pricing capabilities (Dutta et al, 2003), although they do not deal explicitly and exclusively with value assessment or value-based pricing techniques.…”

Recognition of relational strategy content: insight from the managers’ view

“…In the first case, a choice can be made between the logic of a value chain (Hammervoll 2009), according to which forming and maintaining relations is of a transactional character, and the logic of a value network (Peppard and Rylander 2006;Ritala and Ellonen 2010), according to which the collaboration of businesses, clients (consumers), suppliers, complementors and competitors provides benefits to each of these (Stabell and Fjeldstad 1998). Regarding appropriating value, strategists make a choice between mechanisms for protecting value and mechanisms for maximizing value (Ellegaard et al 2014). Firms should strive for balance between creating and appropriating value, whereby creating value is more important and more difficult (Di Gregorio 2013).…”

Entendimentos e desentendimentos da pesquisa empírica da visão baseada em recursos: uma abordagem exploratória

“…Relacionado de alguma forma com a ambiguidade causal, o fenômeno da estratégia carrega uma complexidade social (Barney, 1991;Andersen, 1999;Hayashi, 2009;Agostinho, 2003;Colbert, 2004;Bohórquez, 2013;Ferlie, 2014), que também é um determinante para inimitabilidade. Como o mercado de fatores não é completo, muitas vezes os recursos são acumulados ao invés de adquiridos (Hayashi, Baraniuk e Bulgacov, 2006;Ellegaard et al, 2014). Com isso, Dierickx e Cool (1989) oferecem vários elementos desse processo de acumulação, tais como:…”