value chain

The value chain, also known as value chain analysis, is a concept from business management that was first described and popularized by Michael Porter in his 1985 best-seller, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.A value chain is a chain of activities. Products pass all activities of the chain in order and at each activity the product gains some value. The chain of activities gives the products more added value than the sum of added values of all activities. It is important not to mix the concept of the value chain, with the costs occurring throughout the activities. A diamond cutter can be used as an example of the difference. The cutting activity may have a low cost, but the activity adds to much of the value of the end product, since a rough diamond is a lot less valuable than a cut diamond.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

Definition of this term to be added in next version.

the realisation that the value chain concept must apply to all members (suppliers, intermediaries) of the distribution chain and competition is now one distribution value chain against another.

the many stages involved in taking the raw material in at one end and adding value as it moves through the organisation and is eventually bought by the customer. Competitive advantage will only be sustained if every stage is more efficient and effective than the competition (see benchmarking).