Marketing is criticized for not keeping pace with the changes in the way firms discover, design and deliver value to its stakeholders. In the networked environment, firms typically build ecosystems on the operations side as well as the market side by collaborating with suppliers, customers, complementors and even competitors to create value for their customers and shareholders. This paper presents a conceptual framework for collaborative value creation and demonstrates the use of the same for marketing strategy formulation with the help of a retail automation case study. The implications of market ecosystem for customer value creation and marketing are explored in detail here. A new collaborative value creation framework for strategic marketing is presented in the paper that has the customer at the core with the value creation processes and the players revolving around the customer. Though customers occupy the center stage of organizations, marketing as a function has been steadily loosing its sheen. It is envisaged that the adoption of the new collaborative value creation framework for strategic marketing should help marketing regain its rightful place in organizations.
The
way a firm discovers, designs and delivers value has implications for marketing
function and marketing practitioners. There is much criticism against marketing
and its practitioners that the discipline does not keep pace with the changing
business landscape (Hulbert and Pitt, 1996; McKenna, 1991; Hunt, 1992; Albaum,
1992; Brown, 1995; Zinkhan and Hirschheim, 1992; and Sheth and Sisodia, 1995 and
1999). Too much attention is paid to the individual elements of marketing instead
of sufficient attention to holistic conceptualization of marketing (Bass and Wind,
1995).
Researchers
(Xavier, 1998; Kumar 2004) pointed out the marginalization of marketing in organizations
and the need for revitalization of marketing to make it relevant to the top management
of the organization. A Relationship Paradigm for marketing is suggested by several
authors (Gummesson, 1998; Gronroos, 1994; Sheth and Parvatiyar, 2000 and Vargo
and Lush, 2004). Achrol and Kotler (1999) suggest a network marketing approach.
Srivastava et al. (1999) develop a framework for understanding the integration
of marketing with business processes and shareholder value. |
