Explain the concept of a value network

What will be an ideal response?

A company can be seen as being at the center of a value network, a system of partnerships and alliances that a firm creates to source, augment, and deliver its offerings. A value network includes a firm's suppliers and its suppliers' suppliers, and its immediate customers and their end customers. The value network includes valued relationships with others such as university researchers and government approval agencies. A company needs to orchestrate these parties in order to deliver superior value to the target market.
Managing a value network means making increasing investments in information technology (IT) and software. Firms have introduced supply chain management (SCM) software and invited such software firms as SAP and Oracle to design comprehensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to manage cash flow, manufacturing, human resources, purchasing, and other major functions within a unified framework.