Authors: Svanhild E. Haugnes; Svanhild E. Haugnes
ABSTRACT
How can consumers be considered in industrial networks? This conceptual article examines
how consumers have been researched by the Industrial Network literature (i.e. very little)
taking a business-to-business perspective (e.g., Haugnes, 2011 Håkansson et al., 2009
Sörhammr, 2008). The consumers’ activities are incorporated from the Consumer Behaviour
literature, by which the producers have been researched very little (e.g., Langeard et al., 1981
Wind and Rangaswamy, 2001). The Consumer Behaviour literature takes a business-toconsumer
perspective. How a product is transformed as it moves through the various routes
to market, based on the early work of Alderson (1954 1957 1965 Alderson and Martin,
1965), is chosen as mediator, as it connects producers’ activities and consumers’ activities
logically, all the way from conglomerate resources until the product is considered meaningful
by consumers. Three types of transformation Form, Time and Space, complemented by Cost
and Information, is used. Finally, a business-to-business-to-consumer perspective is
discussed. The intention is to investigate the contributions and gaps of interest that arises
when the activity link between business actors and consumers is used to include consumers’
activities and activity linking in the Industrial Network literature’s industrial network. The
main contribution of the paper is to bring the final consumers into the Industrial Network
model. In doing so, a typology of transformation is created.
Keywords: business actors, consumers, activity links, industrial networks, product
transformation.
Journal: ( – )
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Conference: Glasgow, Scotland (2011)