Value capturing as a balancing act

Purpose – The purpose of this case study is to illustrate the difficulty of capturing value by an upstream supplier in a mature business market. The case shows how successful market introduction and value capturing, especially in the case of mature markets, are dependent on the dominant logic of the participants in the supply chain. Scholars can use the case for a class discussion on value pricing.Design/methodology/approach – The approach takes the form of a multilevel case design as part of a larger project on value‐based pricing sponsored by the Dutch foundation of Technique and Marketing (STEM).Findings – In this mature and technical industry, the dominant mindset of suppliers and customers turns out to be heavily biased towards cost containment. Also, a volume orientation and a short‐term perspective are typical. This leads to adversarial relations in the supply chain, which makes it difficult to jointly introduce new value concepts. Notwithstanding the innovativeness of a new packaging concept with ...