Value shop

A value shop is an organization designed to solve customer or client problems rather than creating value by producing output from an input of raw materials. The principles of value shop were first conceptualized by Thompson in 1967, and properly defined by Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998), who also created the name. 
Compared to Michael Porter's concept of the value chain, there is no sequential fixed set of activities or resources utilized to create value. Each problem is treated uniquely and activities and resources are allocated specifically to cater to the problem in question.
According to the research of Charles B. Stabell and Øystein D. Fjeldstad, the value configuration analysis (1998), five main generic activities are carried out in the organization:
Value is created in the shop by several mechanisms allowing the organization to solve problems better or faster than the client. These are variables such as:
Some of the classical examples of value shops include management consultancies such as Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and McKinsey. The value shop concept has also been applied to a number of other activities including Norwegian police investigations (e.g. Gottschalk, 2007) and the knowledge-intensive energy exploration business (Woiceshyn and Falkenberg, 2008).