Theoretically, the concept of "value chain" was put forward by Michael Porter, a professor at Harvard Business School, in 1985.

Porter believes that "every enterprise is a collection of activities in the process of product design, production, sales, delivery and assistance." All these activities can be represented by the value chain. "The value creation of an enterprise consists of a series of activities, which can be divided into two categories: basic activities and auxiliary activities. Basic activities include internal logistics, production and operation, external logistics, marketing and sales, services, etc. Auxiliary activities include procurement, technology development, human resource management and enterprise infrastructure. These different but interrelated production and operation activities constitute a dynamic process of creating value, that is, value chain.

Value chain is ubiquitous in economic activities. There is an industry value chain between upstream and downstream related enterprises, and the relationship between business units within the enterprise constitutes the enterprise value chain, and there are also value chain links among business units within the enterprise. Every value activity in the value chain will have an impact on how much value the enterprise can finally realize.

Porter's "value chain" theory reveals that the competition between enterprises is not only the competition of a certain link, but the competition of the whole value chain, and the comprehensive competitiveness of the whole value chain determines the competitiveness of enterprises. In Porter's words: "The value in consumers' mind is composed of a series of specific activities and profits of enterprises in material and technology. When you compete with other enterprises, it is actually the competition of many internal activities, not the competition of one activity. "

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Yuan Lei, a reporter from Shenzhen Business Daily, made a comprehensive arrangement.