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A key vision of tomorrow's industry is creating supply chains which collaboratively strive on enhancing the value to the end‐consumer. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the food value chain analysis (FVCA) methodology for improving consumer focus in the agri‐food sector based on the lean paradigm, value stream mapping and value chain analysis (Porter, 1985).

This contribution presents a case‐study of a UK red meat supply chain explaining how the FVCA method enabled a team of researchers and practitioners to identify the misalignments of both product attributes and supply chain activities with the consumer needs.

This paper explains how the FVCA methodology potentially realigned the processes along the supply chain with the true consumer requirements and why the supply chain effectiveness was improved; this follows with a description of the subsequent efficiency gains from application of the FVCA methodology.

This paper further defines the demarcation between supply chain “effectiveness” and “efficiency”. This paper contributes to the debate on the importance of supply chain effectiveness by linking to consumer value at every stage of the supply chain.

The internet has become a ubiquitous technology for business and it possesses the potential to make the concept of value chain into a more attainable reality. The purpose of this paper is to conjecture that the way the internet is utilized and the extent to which the internet impacts business performance vary from country to country. The paper aims to compare two countries regarding the pattern of internet utilization, the impact of the internet on organizational performance, and the readiness for the internet from the value chain perspective.

A survey study was conducted with CIOs and IS directors in the USA and South Korea. A research instrument was developed by adopting and revising two existing instruments on IT value chain and on business internet practices.

The findings suggest that the two countries are more similar in the way they utilize the internet than anticipated despite discernable differences observed in some areas of internet utilization. The study also provides an empirical evidence for the connection between the organization's readiness for the internet and the impact of the internet on organizational performance.

Varying sampling and data collection processes between the two countries may have introduced unintended bias to the study.

The findings of the study provide empirical evidence that the internet has become a truly global business tool that makes the concept of value chain an achievable reality.

This comparative study makes a unique contribution for both academicians and practitioners to gain a better understanding how the internet is adopted and utilized in different countries and to chart a course to capitalize on the technology from a value chain perspective.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of top management teams on firms' value chain action intensity and value chain activity heterogeneity.

The study was conducted from an emerging market perspective. The sample was based on the secondary data collected from three fast-growing industries in India: automobile, pharmaceutical and fast-moving consumer goods over the three-year period from 2009 to 2012. The Panel Poisson and Tobit regression have been used to conduct this study.

Drawing upon the upper echelon theory, the author found that a top management team's educational level, functional heterogeneity and total organizational tenure influence value chain action intensity and value chain activity heterogeneity.

The author introduces the concept of value chain action intensity and value chain action heterogeneity and investigates the role of the upper echelon in influencing intensity and heterogeneity.

This paper explores how key insights from highly cited and well-used frameworks that describe the strategies and structures of MNCs are reflected in the international configurations of US MNCs. After reviewing existing frameworks that highlight different MNC choices regarding the integration, responsiveness, and dispersion of firm value chain activities, I perform a cluster analysis on a comprehensive and confidential database of US MNCs. The results reveal five configurations which both support the importance of key insights from existing frameworks while at the same time highlighting underexplored configuration characteristics, like the low levels of integration in US MNCs, the global sourcing arrangements for accessing foreign inputs and distribution, different approaches to regional expansion, and the limited geographic expansion of US MNCs pursuing product diversification. I argue that these underexplored characteristics suggest directions for future research to better reflect the international configuration choices of MNCs.

This chapter analyzes the efficiency levels of a circular economy (CE) with an emphasis on transaction costs. It examines the governance aspect of CE activities in comparison to the predominant linear value creation. Extant CE research in business studies tends to be descriptive and lacks a theoretical foundation, particularly in understanding CE management. Transaction cost theory explains efficiency in economic organizing, lending itself to the study of arrangements that maximize resource efficiency at continued economic virtue. The conceptualization proposes that CE transaction costs are greater than those within the linear economy (LE), primarily due to the uncertainties about reciprocal dependencies, looping material complexities, exchanging novel information, and increased contracting efforts. Geographically bounded and institutionally homogeneous CE initiatives may curb these rising costs. By bringing efficiency concerns into CE analysis, the chapter demonstrates the applicability of transaction cost theory and highlights CE relevance to international business by pointing out spatial choice implications.

Ownership and location decisions are at the core of the development of multinational enterprises (MNEs) as they deeply impact the creation and appropriation of value in global value chains. Such decisions have been treated by extant literature mostly as oppositions characterized by trade-off alternatives, such as internalization versus externalization and domestic versus offshoring. In this chapter, we discuss the development of a multinational company, that is, De’Longhi, as it has adjusted both ownership and location choices several times over the last 15 years. The case shows that in growing firms, such as De’Longhi, ownership and location decisions are interrelated among each other and with several factors including: interdependences between value chain activities, corporate strategy, organizational culture and the time horizon of the above choices.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical success factors of emblematic hotels from the perspective of the guest, by analysing the direct activities that make up the value chain of these types of establishments.

The authors use the case study methodology to derive conclusions that contribute to the development of a theory about the success factors of emblematic hotels. The case selected is the Spanish Tourist Parador chain. The authors carried out over a period of two years a data mining analysis of the online comments posted by its guests.

The results indicate that the attributes of location and facilities are critical success factors expected a priori given the nature of the business of such establishments, based on the singular nature of the buildings. Another critical success factor is personnel, which seems to indicate that the Paradors support their business model by employing highly qualified staff, but give less attention to restaurant services or the room, according to guest perceptions.

The paper provides required evidence on the critical success factors of emblematic hotels adapting Porter’s value chain, for the tourism accommodation sector, through the analysis of direct value chain activities. In addition, the existing literature is broadened by taking a perspective scarcely studied, the guest perception of hotel establishments, online content posted by the user on the establishment’s website, rather than simply considering the traditional views of the experts/managers, through structures questionnaires. Besides, the results provide practical and useful implications for the managements of the emblematic hotels under study.

During a UN Commission meeting in 1983, Norwegian Prime Minister Brundtland came to state one of the most comprehensive definitions of sustainability: ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (WCED Report, 1987). Since then, themes related to sustainability proliferated and passed beyond the ‘macro’ level by also adopting ‘mezzo’ and ‘micro’ levels as unit of analysis. To state this more specifically, a macro perspective reflects a community level point of view, while a mezzo perspective adopts organisation and institution level focus point, and a micro perspective adopts an individual level research view. Within this framework, the issue turns out to be a debate of providing sustainability to the community, to the institutions (‘business enterprise’ being one of them) and to the individuals. Such fragmentation is especially necessary in literature as it is the aggregation of research on multiple levels that will lead to seminal contributions in many respects. Literature suggests evidence of how devastating the outcomes could be when there is conflict among these different levels regarding the meaning and implications of sustainability (e.g. Baumgartner & Ebner, 2010; Linnenluecke, Russell, & Griffiths, 2009).

The paper aims to discuss how services and service innovation are inter‐linked and support organisational innovation. In particular, the reorganisation of operations and the introduction of new organisational arrangements are examined and conceptualised for further empirical analysis.

Based on the analysis of the different, most recent developments in the literature and practical experiences, a conceptual framework is developed that incorporates service and organisational innovation.

The developed conceptualisation focuses on the role of services and service innovation, and the emerging interactions between organisations and services providers, where facilitators play a role. Accordingly, services are no longer a secondary instrument of the value chain. Instead, they have become essential and may add value from their involvement, for example, in product design, business management, procurement in global markets, and support to customers' participation in value creation.

The paper provides a concept derived from an in‐depth literature analysis. In a next step an empirical analysis based on the proposed concept would complete the theoretical findings.

The proposed conceptual framework supports the overall recognition of service and organisational innovation as a powerful mechanism to gain competitive advantage for companies.

This paper proposes for the first time a conceptual framework that shows that organisational innovation turns into a prevailing tool that facilitates the integration of service innovations into the value chains of companies, and thus the increasing level of inter‐connectedness required for firms' competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper explains how the framework on motives of foreign direct investment (FDI) needs to be rethought when analyzing emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). It argues that the weak position of emerging market firms and their interdependent relationship with lead firms in global value chains (GVCs) modify the selection of internationalization motives.

The arguments are illustrated through a critical review of the literature on FDI motives and a discussion on how the literature can be extended from looking through the lens of emerging market multinationals, particularly those with early development as suppliers in global value chains.

The weak position of emerging market firms and their interdependent relationship with lead firms in global value chains modify the selection of internationalization motives on two aspects. First, internationalization decisions of EMNEs in GVCs are not undertaken in an independent manner. Rather, decisions are influenced by the initial position along the value chain and the dynamic relationships that these EMNEs have with lead firms. Second, the selection of FDI motives of these EMNEs reflects both their international expansion strategy and the upgrading effort they wish to pursue to undertake higher value-adding activities along the GVCs.

These implications addressed in this paper add more nuances to the interpretation of FDI motives. Previously viewed mainly from the perspective of lead firms, FDI decisions are considered as independent alternatives that multinational enterprises (MNEs) can undertake to fulfill their internationalization strategy. Revisiting the FDI motives from the perspective of EMNEs reveals further insights on the interdependent nature of their internationalization, particularly reflecting the weaker position of EMNEs and their interdependent relationship with lead firms in their industry.