Comparative Analysis of Customer Value Dimensions

Abstract

In the current research six dimensions of customer value, namely: quality, cost, time, customization, know-how, and respect for the environment are analyzed in the following industries: automotive, electronics, furniture, food, clothing, and pharmaceutical industry. The research uses inductive approach in which a theory is emerged from the empirical data and observations. The data collection phase benefits from a trade-off based design questionnaire, which was used to collect the comparative data from end customers for each pair of customer value dimension. Due to the pair-wise format of collected data, Friedman test is employed in data analysis phase, in order to prove the validity of dataset in generating meaningful results. Findings are categorized for each dimension of customer value, where the importance of each dimension in comparison with others is discussed. The study results in customer value coefficient for each value dimension in each industry. The proposed coefficient clarifies the priority of value dimensions in different industries based on the dataset. This coefficient enables practitioners to list the corresponding industry customer values in order of importance and support the decision making process in trade-off situation, when improvement of one customer value dimension causes in reduction of the others. The developed coefficient quantitatively states how to sacrifice one and improve another dimension in favour of customer value. In a nut shell, the authors suggest to apply the customer value coefficient for the analysis of customer preferences when trade-off among value dimensions is involved.