Table 5. Description of value gaps No.... | Emerald Publishing

Table 5.

Description of value gaps

No.	Value gap	Description	Example from study
1	Expected value – perceptions of consumer expectation	Starting with the activity of discovering consumer opportunities, the case company tries to identify implicit consumer needs. How these are perceived is affected by the agents’ abilities to understand the consumers. They are also affected by the potential consumers’ inability to articulate their needs and the specific homes selected for observation. This is further filtered by the creative borderless organization that needs to agree on how to interpret what the agents have documented	Images from five product development studies show how information about implicit needs is collected. The documentation can be skewed, as the tenant might clean up prior to the visit. The team studying the pictures are biased and might not detect all implicit needs
2	Perceptions of consumer expectations – specifications	Once the company forms its perception of consumer expectations, they are converted into product specifications. Specifications are limited by manufacturing capabilities in sourcing, including the selected materials and the capacity of manufacturers	The manager of product development maintains a spreadsheet of materials and colors that can be used. Some factories do not have the capability to produce the desired products. In one instance, a new product series was made of rod-glued oak, which the factory could not produce
3	Specifications – delivered value	There are several ways in which the delivered product may deviate from the specifications of the same product. Manufacturing disruptions can result in stockouts and problems in materials and manufacturing can produce an undesired finish	One factory had problems with producing a pristine white finish, as their main market was the USA, which had a demand for an aged look. The white finish was sometimes contaminated with dirt, and tables in one collection had fingerprints on the underside of the tabletops, resulting from the products being carried by hand to specific paint locations. One table had a thick top, which was supposed to contain a honeycomb. To make production easier, the factory instead made the top in solid wood, making the table extremely heavy
4	Delivered value – communicated value	This gap is interesting as it is not easy to know what is, or should be, the reference for the communicated value. Perhaps the reference should be delivered value, but perceived value might be better? The value is communicated through the retailer, who might have incentives to make his/her own interpretation. Also, the commercial launch is prepared before the product is delivered, which might cause inconsistencies	The innovative features of the furniture are sometimes hard to identify. In media furniture, for example, the innovation is only seen from the bottom and the backside, but the retailers only show the front and top side. Significant differences exist in how the retailers can generate sales. The best performing retailer sold just over three unique articles for each article on display, with the worst performing retailer selling one unique article for each on display (average 2.07)
5	Delivered value – perceived value	At the heart of the case company’s strategy is to understand tacit requirements. The tacit nature of value is reflected in how it is perceived. Natural variations in materials can disappoint a consumer. Other factors, such as reception by the retailer, can also augment the experience of the consumer	One retailer argued that it was embarrassing to reveal the production country for consumers: “People look at this [dining room] set of furniture, which is among the most expensive products we have on display. When they ask where it is produced, I want to say that it is made in Sweden, or at least Europe. But it is embarrassing to say China.” One of the most expensive dining-room tables was constructed in long pieces of rod-glued oak, completely free from twig marks. This was expensive to produce and sales were low. The company made the same table, but with a lower quality wood, with more twig marks. The table was cheaper and a success. One retailer explained that the old table was so clean in its finish, that it looked plastic, whereas the new table looked warm and natural
6	Perceived value – expected value	The gaps are not summative, but they all contribute to create a difference between what is expected and what is perceived. These gaps also span across the value chain, involving all actors. If the perceived value is higher than the expected value, it is reasonable to assume that the consumer is satisfied. Therefore, consumer satisfaction is dependent on several gaps, which are dependent on several actors in the borderless organization	This gap is not addressed by the case company. Both the CEO and the founder of the company were asked why they did not direct any efforts toward investigating how users experienced their products. Both found the idea interesting, but saw some issues with requesting consumer data from the retailers

No.	Value gap	Description	Example from study
1	Expected value – perceptions of consumer expectation	Starting with the activity of discovering consumer opportunities, the case company tries to identify implicit consumer needs. How these are perceived is affected by the agents’ abilities to understand the consumers. They are also affected by the potential consumers’ inability to articulate their needs and the specific homes selected for observation. This is further filtered by the creative borderless organization that needs to agree on how to interpret what the agents have documented	Images from five product development studies show how information about implicit needs is collected. The documentation can be skewed, as the tenant might clean up prior to the visit. The team studying the pictures are biased and might not detect all implicit needs
2	Perceptions of consumer expectations – specifications	Once the company forms its perception of consumer expectations, they are converted into product specifications. Specifications are limited by manufacturing capabilities in sourcing, including the selected materials and the capacity of manufacturers	The manager of product development maintains a spreadsheet of materials and colors that can be used. Some factories do not have the capability to produce the desired products. In one instance, a new product series was made of rod-glued oak, which the factory could not produce
3	Specifications – delivered value	There are several ways in which the delivered product may deviate from the specifications of the same product. Manufacturing disruptions can result in stockouts and problems in materials and manufacturing can produce an undesired finish	One factory had problems with producing a pristine white finish, as their main market was the USA, which had a demand for an aged look. The white finish was sometimes contaminated with dirt, and tables in one collection had fingerprints on the underside of the tabletops, resulting from the products being carried by hand to specific paint locations. One table had a thick top, which was supposed to contain a honeycomb. To make production easier, the factory instead made the top in solid wood, making the table extremely heavy
4	Delivered value – communicated value	This gap is interesting as it is not easy to know what is, or should be, the reference for the communicated value. Perhaps the reference should be delivered value, but perceived value might be better? The value is communicated through the retailer, who might have incentives to make his/her own interpretation. Also, the commercial launch is prepared before the product is delivered, which might cause inconsistencies	The innovative features of the furniture are sometimes hard to identify. In media furniture, for example, the innovation is only seen from the bottom and the backside, but the retailers only show the front and top side. Significant differences exist in how the retailers can generate sales. The best performing retailer sold just over three unique articles for each article on display, with the worst performing retailer selling one unique article for each on display (average 2.07)
5	Delivered value – perceived value	At the heart of the case company’s strategy is to understand tacit requirements. The tacit nature of value is reflected in how it is perceived. Natural variations in materials can disappoint a consumer. Other factors, such as reception by the retailer, can also augment the experience of the consumer	One retailer argued that it was embarrassing to reveal the production country for consumers: “People look at this [dining room] set of furniture, which is among the most expensive products we have on display. When they ask where it is produced, I want to say that it is made in Sweden, or at least Europe. But it is embarrassing to say China.” One of the most expensive dining-room tables was constructed in long pieces of rod-glued oak, completely free from twig marks. This was expensive to produce and sales were low. The company made the same table, but with a lower quality wood, with more twig marks. The table was cheaper and a success. One retailer explained that the old table was so clean in its finish, that it looked plastic, whereas the new table looked warm and natural
6	Perceived value – expected value	The gaps are not summative, but they all contribute to create a difference between what is expected and what is perceived. These gaps also span across the value chain, involving all actors. If the perceived value is higher than the expected value, it is reasonable to assume that the consumer is satisfied. Therefore, consumer satisfaction is dependent on several gaps, which are dependent on several actors in the borderless organization	This gap is not addressed by the case company. Both the CEO and the founder of the company were asked why they did not direct any efforts toward investigating how users experienced their products. Both found the idea interesting, but saw some issues with requesting consumer data from the retailers

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