New ways of creating value in B2B commodity procurement

: an analysis of the value drivers of german SMEs in the online on-demand delivery of C-articles such as commodity goods illustrated on the german beverage distributor flaschenpost SE

Abstract

The on-demand economy is leading to disruptive changes in a wide variety of markets. A particular impact can be seen in direct-to-consumer markets, such as the on-demand delivery of groceries. Flaschenpost SE, which was the first to bring on-demand delivery of beverages to Germany, also offers its service to business customers - but with the same value proposition as for private customers. This work aims to find out whether business customers are satisfied with the composition and execution of this value proposition or whether it needs to be adapted to business customers in terms of transactional- and efficiency-driven value drivers. Therefore, small-medium-sized business customers were asked about their preferences and satisfaction ina cross-sectional analysis within a self-administered online questionnaire. The results obtained, by using the maximum difference scaling method, show that an adjustment of the value proposition with respect to its value driver is not necessary. A possible explanation for this may lie in the consumerization of business buying. Furthermore, the study showed na underperformance of the value proposition in the area of customer services for business customers and an increased risk of churn due to pricing. Thus, the thesis has found out thatthere is no need to change the value proposition for corporate customers, but rather a marginal adjustment and error correction. Possible solutions lie in conversational commerce and pre-order incentivization to smooth demand. Further studies are needed to overcome the limitations of the study and to validate the findings further.

Date of Award	5 Jul 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Boris Durisin (Supervisor)