If you can not be different - what differentiates you? : A study of value creation in the commodity industry

Abstract: This thesis draws attention to understand how firms in the B2B commodity industry seek to utilize value-creating activities to achieve competitive advantage, which is also the overall purpose of this thesis. The premise of this thesis is of empirical nature, thus empirically applicable and experienced by other companies inside the commodity industry. In order to reach the purpose of this thesis a case study of Alpha International, Beta and Delta has been carried out which involved personal interviews with different respondents from the companies. The theoretical framework involves a description of competitive strategy, value creation, value chain, value proposition and finally value delivery. The empirical study is based on building a framework of how the companies create value by using different value creating activities.   In the analysis the theoretical framework is related to the results of the empirical study. It is here discussed how the different case companies value creating activities leads to a competitive advantage. In addition to analyzing the value creation activities; the value proposition of the case companies is analyzed and how these are delivered. It is concluded that the case companies studied seeks to utilize value-creating activities to achieve competitive advantage in many different ways.   Generally speaking, it is found that the case companies most commonly try to achieve similar types of value; delivery reliability and quality. However this is achieved in different ways; through different types of activities such as services, different types of integration strategies or a certain type of technology that surrounds the product offering that is utilized by different types of labor in the companies. The companies also have different ways in offering and communicating the value towards the customer by using a value proposition; depending on what type of benefit the customer seeks. At last, discussion and implications are given to present managerial and theoretical implications together with further research.