Collaborative Innovation    
Companies along the value chain working together, beyond the capabilities of the individual companies, to create value for the consumer through innovation, both product and process. This can create a Sustainable Competitive Advantage.

Consumer    
The individual ultimately consuming your product, and determines the attributes of value ( ie – what are they willing to pay for?).

Customer    
The next link in the chain, from your business, that takes your product to the end consumer. The ultimate customer is the one that sells the product to the consumer.

Information flow    
The sharing of information with stakeholders (up-stream and down-stream) along the value chain.  Information may include inventory levels, product information, potential customers, consumer needs and wants.

Life cycle analysis    
An analytical tool that quantifies the environmental impacts relating to production, processing, packaging, distribution, use and disposal of a product. The focus is on the intensity of resource use and the environmental impact of outputs at each stage of the value chain.

Material flow    
Identification of the specific inputs and activities which make up the production, processing, distribution, retailing and consumption of a product or service.

Relationships    
The way in which interactions with stake-holders take place throughout a value chain.  Relationships are the foundation for successful value chains.

Sustainable competitive advantage    
A firm possesses a sustainable competitive advantage when its value-creating processes and position have not been able to be duplicated by other firms and outperforms other businesses.

Sustainable value chain analysis is an evolution of the value chain analysis tool.  It is a strategic business decision making tool for achieving better alignment between resource allocation, environmental management and consumer value.

A value chain is a collection of businesses ranging from primary producers, processors, distributors and retailers that progressively create consumer value in a specific market segment. 

Value chain analysis is a diagnostic tool that analyses the current state of the value chain by mapping and analysing the key performance drivers of the chain; material and information flows and relationships.  The diagnosis results in improvement projects.

Value chain management is the collaborative allocation of resources and responsibilities within and between the businesses in the value chain.  Value chain management is an evolution of supply chain management; with supply chain management focusing on reducing costs (efficiency) whilst value chain management brings in the creation of consumer value as the key driver in the chain (efficacy) with the ability to anticipate and respond to change (innovativeness).  All businesses along the value chain work together and communicate effectively to best use resources and take joint responsibility for delivering a product to consumer demands.

Value chain thinking is thinking about how to collectively grow the “pie” rather than competing for an individual slice of the pie.