Paper info

The role of interdependencies for value co-creation in buyer-sellerpartnerships in Business Markets

Birgitta Forsstrom and Jan-Åke Törnroos

The paper was published at the 21st IMP-conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2005.

There is only a limited understanding of value in business markets in situations where the interactiveprocess between the involved parties is assumed to contain a value creating ingredient. In neo-classiceconomic theory it is assumed that interaction only deals with how value is distributed or shared, notvalue as such. In the context of industrial buyer-seller relationships value is created through interactionover time. Interaction leads to differing degrees of dependence and interdependence. It is argued inthis paper that interdependencies – and creating and exploiting these – are essential in realising thevalue creation potential that exists in a business relationship.Keywords: value, value co-creation, buyer-seller dyad, partnership, interdependence, businessnetworks