We explored a time-value-oriented business model innovation path through enterprises practical experiences in the first part. This section attempts to further review the literature on the main factors in this path based on this foundation, and proposes hypothetical relationships between them and customer perceived value, thereby laying a solid foundation for the next part to continue exploring and verifying the impact of each element of the business model path on customer perceived value.
Value proposition innovation and customer perceived value
In the business model of life services enterprises, the value proposition refers to the combination of values offered to customers by the enterprise, which can solve customers’ diversified needs (Rintamäki and Saarijärvi, 2021; Osterwalder, 2013). It answers questions like “Who are the target customers of the enterprise? What kind of value is created for customers? What combination of products and services is provided?”. As the starting point of business model operation and a primary component of the business model, a clear value proposition enables an enterprise to deeply and clearly define its position (Helmold, 2020). Through market and product segmentation, the enterprise can identify its target market and target customers, thus effectively meeting customer needs (Dolnicar, 2022). Value proposition innovation involves designing genuine solutions based on customer needs, aligning products with the market (Abdel-Basst et al. 2020, Osterwalder et al. 2015), to better meet market demands and provide added value to customers. This leads to customer satisfaction, making them more willing to pay a premium and consume the company’s products and services more continuously and frequently (Dash et al. 2021).
Firstly, enterprises can use modern information technology and big data to obtain early customer transaction data and feedback, accurately grasp the real needs of customers and their changing trends (Gallego and Font, 2021), and further clarify the target market of the enterprise (Liu, 2019; Suoniemi et al. 2020). Currently, the fast-paced lifestyle and work patterns have led to customers’ increasing demands for efficiency and experience. Businesses in the life service industry are closely related to the daily lives of customers. Facing the changing trends in customer needs, enterprises should make adaptive adjustments to their products and services to better meet current customer needs and possibly lead future demands (Liu et al. 2020).
Secondly, enterprises, through value proposition innovation, reposition the value supplied to target customers and strive for differentiation. With the development and widespread application of mobile internet, customers find it easier and cheaper to access information, leading to more personalized and diversified needs (Zhang et al. 2023). The desire for novelty and difference is particularly prevalent among young consumers. To better cater to customer needs and enhance customer perceived value, enterprises need to change their value propositions, truly solve customer problems, and create innovative or entirely new products or services, thus significantly enhancing customer perceived value.
Finally, enterprises should clearly define the goods that carry customer benefits. Modern customers, becoming increasingly discerning, demand diverse and personalized advanced needs to be met, driving enterprises to shift from basic single products or services to integrated solutions, thus bringing not just single product or service value to customers, but a combination of values to meet diversified needs.
In summary, the broader and faster-growing the market space of the target customers of the enterprise’s services, the more obvious the differentiation of the core benefits provided by the enterprise, and the more the enterprise can provide personalized solutions around unique customer needs, the greater the customer perceived value it can create, and thus achieve better performance.
Based on the above analysis, this paper proposes the following hypothesis:
H1: Time-value-based proposition innovation in the business model of life service enterprises can enhance customer perceived value.
Key processes innovation and customer perceived value
Innovation in a business model requires interaction and synergy among its various elements. Following the proposal of a new value proposition, it’s necessary to explore the path to its realization – the key processes. Key processes are the core operational and management activities designed and implemented by a business to realize and deliver its value proposition (Johnson et al. 2008). Typically encompassing aspects like production, sales, marketing, customer service, and supply chain management, key processes are an indispensable part of creating and delivering customer perceived value. Innovating in these key processes defines new ways of value delivery, directly affecting the delivery, quality, and efficiency of products or services, thereby enhancing customer perceived value.
Time-value-based innovation in key processes can improve production and delivery efficiency by quickly meeting customer needs. By using technology and methodologies, businesses can reduce the time for value-creating activities in production operations and eliminate non-value-adding activities, thereby speeding up the provision of products and services. For instance, introducing advanced production technologies, automated processes, or intelligent manufacturing systems can enhance production efficiency and shorten delivery cycles, enabling customers to receive their desired products or services faster. This capability of prompt delivery enhances customer satisfaction, creating more value of time for customers.
Innovations in sales, marketing, and customer service can enhance the value of time of consumption and improve customer experience (Zott and Amit, 2010). With the rapid development of digital technology, businesses can offer more convenient and personalized customer services (Coronado-Medina et al. 2020). Innovations like intelligent customer service systems, online shopping platforms, mobile applications, and virtual reality technologies break the synchronicity of time and space in consumption, providing more convenient and real-time consumption channels (Lee and Lee, 2020). Meanwhile, businesses can eliminate temporal and spatial distances with customers using emerging technologies, allowing real-time interaction and better understanding of customer needs. These innovations reduce the time customers spend searching, increase the efficiency of fragmented time utilization, and help businesses build closer customer relationships and increase loyalty (Yan et al. 2022).
Furthermore, key processes play a significant role in supply chain management, regulating the health of the entire supply network, enabling the business activity system to operate more efficiently and at lower costs, thereby enhancing customer perceived value (Ranta et al. 2019). By optimizing the supply chain, businesses can accelerate production and logistics processes, shortening product delivery times (Song et al. 2018). Using digital technologies like blockchain enhances the timeliness and transparency of information, reduces information asymmetry, and improves the efficiency of inter-enterprise collaboration (Barenji et al. 2019). This enables businesses to quickly adapt to changes in consumer demand, thus better meeting customers’ real-time needs. Additionally, innovative supply chain management processes strengthen product quality management, improve product traceability, and help increase customer confidence and satisfaction.
In summary, this paper proposes the following hypothesis:
H2: Time-value-based key process innovation in the business model of life service enterprises can enhance customer perceived value.
Core resources innovation and customer perceived value
Core resources are the key resources that a company must own or control to offer its value proposition and implement critical processes (Foss and Saebi, 2018). These resources form the foundation that supports the entire business model’s operation, playing a central role in fostering business model innovation and determining the level of value creation and delivery by the company (Zhang et al. 2021). Specifically, a company’s competitive advantage in core resources such as proprietary technology, brand recognition, and reputation acts as a “catalyst” in achieving efficient and effective flow of services, information, capital, and decision-making, and in enhancing the efficiency of value creation (Jajja et al. 2018). Therefore, companies should strive to reduce time costs through more efficient processes and operations, relying on the “value of time” to form a competitive advantage. This involves the optimal utilization of resources, including the effective organization and collaboration of technological, material, and human resources.
Companies introducing advanced technology as a core resource, oriented towards the value of time, can accelerate service processes and improve efficiency (Christensen et al. 2018). By utilizing digital technology, companies promote a shift in production towards personalization, intelligence, and networking, thereby transforming company boundaries into a penetrable structure linking “company-platform-customer”, enhancing service efficiency. These technologies also help companies reshape their interactions with customers, strengthening their understanding of customer needs. Companies provide solutions centered around the customer, getting closer to them and uncovering their needs, thus helping customers create more value (Gawer, 2021).
Companies innovating their logistics and supply chain systems oriented towards the value of time enhance the flexibility, speed, and collaborative efficiency of their logistics and supply chain systems, thereby optimizing production and logistics planning, and reducing production and delivery cycles. Companies integrate core resources with upstream and downstream partners, achieve network collaboration, and establish unique supply chain management systems, continuously improving the level of customer value on the basis of enhancing their own value creation efficiency. For example, DiDi Global has built an intelligent information control system that uses big data and other technologies to optimize travel routes, reduce the likelihood of encountering traffic congestion, and to some extent reduce customer waiting time.
In addition, innovation in core resources such as data also provides companies with more accurate forecasting and decision-making support, reducing decision cycles, and increasing responsiveness to market changes, thereby reducing ineffective time waste in management. At the same time, companies can more effectively train employee skills, thereby accelerating the completion of tasks.
Based on the above theoretical analysis, this paper proposes the following hypothesis:
H3: Time-value-based core resources innovation in the business model of life service enterprises can enhance customer perceived value.
Transaction methods innovation and customer perceived value
The transaction method is a primary embodiment of a company’s profit model and the final link in value acquisition. Businesses realize value conversion through transactions and interactions with customers (Chesbrough et al. 2018). It describes how a company obtains revenue, reduces costs, and improves asset utilization. While meeting customer value needs, it maximizes financial returns, answering the question of “How does the business effectively obtain economic returns?”. Its essence is to bring more value to customers, gain more customer recognition, make customers feel their purchasing behavior is worthwhile, thereby enhancing customer perceived value. In other words, customer perceived value is at the core of the entire profit model and is a fundamental and decisive factor in the entire structure (Woodruff, 1997).
The rapid development and widespread application of mobile internet have made customer needs more personalized and diversified (Wang, 2021). Business transaction modes that solely pursue high profits but neglect the quality of products and services not only fail to meet the new changes in customer needs but also lead to increased customer aversion (Zhang and Li, 2021), causing a continuous decline in customer perceived value. On the contrary, when businesses design transaction modes, they not only focus on the value of products and services but also pay attention to the consumption experience, bringing maximum satisfaction to customers, thereby improving customer loyalty and maximizing customer perceived value (Jiang et al. 2018). This will inevitably bring substantial returns to the enterprise, enabling it to have more financial resources.
The innovation of time-value-oriented transaction methods of enterprises mainly relies on modern information technology to innovate better, such as integrating online and offline, mobile payment, omnichannel payment, etc., realizing the diversity of transaction channels, the convenience of transaction modes, and breaking down the barriers of time and space in transactions (Liao and Yang, 2020). This maximizes convenience for customers and reduces costs for both parties, creating a sufficient sense of trust and identification in the minds of customers, thus enhancing customer perceived value (Kim et al. 2021).
The design of new transaction modes should be customer-centered, allowing customers to customize the products they need based on their value demands and even actively participate in the entire process of designing and producing the needed products. This fully meets their personalized and experiential service needs, better realizing customer perceived value (Flavián et al. 2019). In this process, the business will also obtain substantial profit returns.
Based on the above analysis, this paper proposes the following hypothesis:
H4: Time-value-based transaction methods innovation in the business model of life service enterprises can enhance customer perceived value.
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