Introduction

There is a clear change in the success formulas of businesses. The strength of the largest industrial companies, such as Philips, Unilever or General Electric, used to be based on economies of scale on the supply side of the economy. These companies achieved their market power through managing resources, internally optimising processes and expanding their customer base using a competitive pricing strategy. Vertical integration and mergers and acquisitions ensured there was greater control across the entire value chain. Since the Industrial Revolution this has been the strategy for generating comparative competitive advantages. At the end of the last century, successful businesses still operated using a classical linear value chain, whereby a series of consecutive value activities was carried out and all production processes were controlled primarily from the company itself. For many years, the markets, both physical and local, were aimed at business-to-consumer (B2C) sales…