9. Conclusions

To disclose the important role of VCM, the current work follows a gradual but holistic approach toward VCM. In brief, it provides new insights that potentially contribute to the formation of a more widely accepted perspective on the impact of VCM when marketing supplier innovations. The results of this thesis contribute to the planning and management of suppliers’ marketing projects. The present analysis shows that the performance of a supplier’s marketing project depends on the selected VCM strategy, the degree of newness the focal innovation has, and the overlap between the knowledge bases of the involved actors. As a result, suppliers who try to implement innovations along industrial value chains should decide a priori which VCM strategy to pursue. The model presented here is intended as a tool for suppliers to evaluate the performance of cooperative and non-cooperative VCM in advance. The supplier’s strategic decision should be based on the innovation that has to be promoted and the knowledge base he possesses. It is also possible to make use of the developed agent-based VCM model in other business fields where similar problems or structures can be observed. An example is the field of multidivisional firms which are characterized by autonomous business divisions.