The essence of the concept of systemic value is in customer value creation (Bowman and
Ambrosini, 2000; Clulow et al., 2007; Wernerfelt, 1984). In order to beat the competition the
firm has to provide value for its customers, and the value of its offering has to be higher than
that of its competitors in the eyes of the customer (Bowman and Ambrosini, 2000). It thus has
to know what customers need and how to fulfill these needs. Therefore, after successfully
DOI 10.1108/figuring out what customers want, it might seem straightforward to analyze customer value
since, in general, customers value products and services that solve a certain problem,
entertain them, or provide other specific benefits. A firm that is able to deliver these benefits
more efficiently and effectively will be successful in the long run. However, in many cases the
delivery is not straightforward because the value the customer perceives may derive through
several different but intertwined attributes that are differently preferred by the customer. In
order to provide insights into this issue we sketch a framework for the systemic analysis of
customer value, as Figure 1 shows.