Accessibility Value Chain
This series of pages will explain the concept of the “accessibility value chain“.
In order to understand that concept, let’s look at the basic idea of a value chain. This concept was first put forward by Michael Porter, who wrote about it in his book Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance (1985). Simply stated, a value chain is the recognition that the value of a product is created by a manufacturer plus a lot of other players: component vendors, distributors, retailers, and end users all contribute value.
Image courtesy Value Chain Partnerships for a Sustainable Agriculture
In this diagram, the farmer receives seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, water, etc. from other entities; the product of the farm is further increased in value by many other entities, such as supermarkets and restaurants. Without a robust chain of participating entities, not as much value can be delivered to the user.
Value chains can be used to analyze the total social benefit from products and services, and to clarify and refine the relationships between and among links in the chain.