Value chain

A value chain is a progression of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product (i.e., good and/or service) to the end customer. The concept comes through business management and was first described by Michael Porter in his 1985 best-seller, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.[1]

The idea of the value chain is based on the process view of organizations, the idea of seeing a manufacturing (or service) organization as a system, made up of subsystems each with inputs, transformation processes and outputs. Inputs, transformation processes, and outputs involve the acquisition and consumption of resources – money, labour, materials, equipment, buildings, land, administration and management. How value chain activities are carried out determines costs and affects profits.

— IfM, Cambridge[2]

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Strategy
Major dimensions Strategy • Strategic management Military strategy Strategic planning • Game theory Strategic studies • Strategic thinking
Major thinkers Michael Porter  • Rita Gunther McGrath Bruce Henderson  • Gary Hamel Candace A. Yano  • C. K. Prahalad Jim Collins  • Liddell Hart Carl von Clausewitz  • Sun Tzu Julian Corbett  • Alfred Thayer Mahan J.C. Wylie  • Adrian Slywotzky Sharon Oster  • Chris Zook Henry Mintzberg
Concepts Business model  • Competitive advantage Value chain  • Performance effects Core competency • Generic strategies Mission statement
Frameworks and tools SWOT • Five forces Balanced scorecard • Ansoff matrix OGSM • Managerial grid model PEST analysis • Growth–share matrix STP • MECE principle Business Model Canvas • Kraljic matrix Strategic Grid Model • Strategy map • VRIO
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According to the OECD Secretary-General (Gurría 2012) harv error: no target: CITEREFGurría2012 (help)[3] the emergence of global value chains (GVCs) in the late 1990s provided a catalyst for accelerated change in the landscape of international investment and trade, with major, far-reaching consequences on governments as well as enterprises (Gurría 2012) harv error: no target: CITEREFGurría2012 (help).[3]