Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Publication Title

Industrial Marketing Management

Keywords

index development, value-in-use, value-in-use management, value-in-use management implementation, B2B marketing, relationship marketing

Abstract

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing is increasingly shifting from transactional exchanges to the long-term management of customer relationships. As suppliers offer complex, integrated solutions, the focus has shifted from product attributes to the value realized during usage. To manage this experienced value-in-use (VIU), suppliers are establishing organizational structures and processes dedicated to VIU management (VIUM). Despite its growing theoretical and managerial significance, no validated instrument currently exists to assess VIUM implementation from the supplier's perspective. This study develops and validates a second-order formative supplier-side index comprising seven VIUM subprocesses. Nomological evidence (based on survey data from B2B supplier managers, N = 284) shows that VIUM implementation is positively associated with cross-functional collaboration, customer orientation, customer centricity, and percentage sales, supporting the index's practical relevance. From a resource-based view (RBV) perspective, the study conceptualizes VIUM implementation as a supplier capability, and the validated index provides B2B firms with a diagnostic and benchmarking tool to assess VIUM implementation and prioritize improvements across customer accounts.

Funding Source

This article was published Open Access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Elsevier.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.1016/j.indmarman.2026.04.004

Comments

First published in Industrial Marketing Management (2026): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2026.04.004

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