Identifying customer value in the new 5G ecosystem : A case study on Ericsson

Abstract: The purpose with this study is to enhance the understanding of how a companies in the ICT industry can increase customer value in the new environment enabled by 5G. Furthermore, the study concretizes the interactions and experiences between different actors on the market, with focus on the subjective values, or as we call them, the non-functional differentiators. To be able to fulfil the purpose, the study explored the routines regarding the non-functional differentiators in the environment of 5G. In order to conduct this study, an exploratory research with an inductive qualitative approach was used. A single case-study design was chosen on the company of Ericsson. In total 25 interviews were held within five different business areas at Ericsson. The interviews were of semi-structured character and the data was analysed through a thematic analysis. The findings from the study revealed five different themes. The first two represent the new ecosystem with the key actors and the new environment. The next two themes illustrate the most important routines in this new environment. Lastly, the findings present the importance of relationship experience and which of the non-functional differentiators that has the most impact. The study has enhanced the understanding of how customer value could be increased by identifying the routines of the interactions between different actors and how they should be acclimatized in the new environment. This study contributes to the literature regarding the environment of the ecosystem, the routines of the co-creation process and experiences of the relationship in it. Furthermore, the study concretizes the routines in the co-creation process which will assist the managers in their work of generating customer value. However, the study is limited due its single case-study were only one of the key-actors was investigated. A suggestion for future research is to do a multi-case study, which includes the perspectives of not just one key-actor, but the other key-actors as well, i.e. Ericsson’s customers. An approach like this could validate our findings and thereby ensure the findings transferability.