Abstract
M.Comm
An assessment of the impact of value chain management on business performance.
The impact of value chain management on overall business performance is not
certain. The concept of value chain management has natural application to
manufacturing concerns, significantly more so than to financial services companies
such as life insurers. The uncertainty pertaining to the worth of value chain
management in a life insurance company is therefore even greater. The study
examines the literature for evidence of the impact that value chain management has
on business performance and uses the findings from the literature to construct an
empirical study in Momentum Group Limited, a South African life insurer.
The literature does not conceptualise value chain management as a definitive
construct. There is however evidence of many concepts related to value chain
management and their impact on business performance was investigated in the
literature review. The findings from the literature indicate that improvements to
several components of business performance can be expected from value chain
management, as well as a commensurate improvement in overall business
performance.
The empirical study was conducted with reference to the value chain management
model that was implemented by Momentum for a specific customer group. A
separate value chain was constructed by Momentum to service the needs of
specialist investment brokers, and the activities in the value chain were aligned
accordingly. The empirical study assessed the implementation success of this model,
the improvement in business performance and the preferred organisational structure