Digital value chain

The Value Chain concept in the Digital Era

The Value Chain concept in the Digital Era

The Value Chain concept was introduced by Michael Porter back in 1985. Simply put, any company is a set of activities contributing to the value the company creates for the customers. For example, the firm buys raw materials and adds value to them at each stage of the manufacturing process. Porter divided all the activities into two groups. The first one represents primary activities:

· inbound logistics

· operations

· outbound logistics

· marketing and sales

· service

The second group represents support activities:

· firm infrastructure

· HR management

· technology development

· procurement

This idea totally fitted the XX century economy, when physical goods manufacturers were the primary value-added producers. But in the digital era, this concept needs fine-tuning.

The most obvious idea is that customers (even in the B2B industries) share their opinions on their experience of using the products and services they bought on social media, and goods manufact…