Framing Value in Market Relationships

The interest in the concept of value is high in both economics and management studies. In marketing in particular the diffusion of a relational view of markets has lead to a renewed debate on value creation. The present argument is that value in this context is phenomenological and interactional. However, even though there is an agreement among scholars that value perceptions matter for the behaviour of actors, both individuals and firms, the notion of value seems to remain ambiguous. Specifically, it is not clear how value perceptions emerge. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for analysis of value formation which builds on the value perceptions and interpretations. Drawing on empirical observations of how actors perceive value elements in btob and btoc service markets we discuss the concept of value as a mental experience that results from framing the context of action and propose a conceptual framework for modelling value formation.