Tensions between Value Capture and Value Slippage: The Case of Brand Communities

• Date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1484
• Author: Bernard Cova,Bernard Paranque
• Published date: 01 March 2019

Tensions between Value Capture and Value

Slippage: The Case of Brand Communities

Bernard Cova*

Kedge Business School

Bernard Paranque

Kedge Business School

Abstract

With the development of intangibles, the issue of value cap-

ture has become of paramount importance, especially for

f‌irms that have a community of users gathered around their

brand. While the notion of utilizing communities may be ap-

pealing, transforming the relationship between f‌irms and

communities into prof‌it for the f‌irm is less obvious. The dual

challenge for f‌irms is capturing the value created by the

brand community, while avoiding any kind of value slippage

to another actor. From a re-examination of f‌ive cases of

value creation with brand communities in different indus-

tries, we delineate three assemblages of actors and episodes

manifesting value slippage, and two manifesting value cap-

ture by virtue of the attitudes and behaviours of the f‌irms

that own the brands. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published

by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: brand community, exchange value, intangible

asset, value capture, value creation, value slippage

Résumé

Avec le développement des actifs intangibles, la capture de

la valeur est devenue un enjeu crucial pour les entreprises

notamment quand elles bénéf‌icient d’une communauté

autour de leur marque. Bien que l’idée de capitaliser sur

la communauté soit attrayante, la valorisation de cette rela-

tion n’est pas évidente. Les entreprises doivent capturer la

valeur créée par la communauté et éviter qu’elle ne glisse

vers d’autres acteurs. À partir de la relecture de cinq cas

de création de valeur par des communautés de marque dans

différentes industries, nous identif‌ions trois assemblages

d’acteurs et d’épisodes montrant un glissement de valeur et

deux autres traduisant une capture de la valeur en fonction

de l’attitude et du comportement de l’entreprise propriétaire

de la marque. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John

Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mots-clés: actif intangible, capture de valeur, création de

valeur, communauté de marque, glissement de valeur, valeur

d’échange

Introduction

Recent technological developments have considerably

increased the capacity of users gathered in a community to

generate new ideas and services linked to a f‌irm’s offers.

In turn, f‌irms understand the advantages of capturing the

value created by these intangible assets and practices for

their own benef‌it. The creative capacity of user communities

is particularly spurred when the object is a brand that arouses

fervour. Theoretically, these brand communities should be

benef‌icial for the f‌irm and yet, the value created by the brand

community can slip toward other market or non-market

actors and therefore away from the f‌irm owning the brand.

By analyzing cases of brand communities, this paper

aims to identify existing or potential slippages considering

the different assemblages of actors and episodes, and

discussing the consequences for f‌irms. In the f‌irst section,

the paper introduces the concept of value slippage in the

context of the growing importance of intangibles, such as

brands, thereafter applying this to the specif‌ic context of

brand communities. The “cold cases revisited”methodology

is detailed in the second section to analyze the tension

between actors to capture value by controlling value slip-

page. The cases are analyzed in section three, followed by

a discussion of the results and their implications.

Value Capture and Value Slippage with Intangible Assets

One of the most important economic developments of

the last decades is the growing importance of intangibles

(Arvidsson, 2011). Hidden assets or intangible resources in-

clude intellectual capital, patents, brands, or reputation,

which often relay more about the future earning capabilities

of a f‌irm than any conventional performance measure (Hall,

1992; Roos & Roos, 1997). Intangible resources have grown

thanks to the development of new information and commu-

nication technologies that enable more and more people to

*Please address correspondence to: Bernard Cova, Marketing Department,

Kedge Business School, BP 921, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France. Email:

bernard.cova@kedgebs.com

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

36:35–46 (2019)

Published online 5 March 2018 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1484

Can J Adm Sci

36(1), 35–46 (2019)Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 35