An interdependent system of firms, distribution channels, platforms, service providers and supporting organizations that co‑create, deliver and capture economic and experiential value for food, hospitality or tourism markets through reciprocal transactions, information flows and governance rules rather than through a single linear supply chain.

Principle

Value is created and allocated through the structure of relationships, roles and coordination mechanisms (contracts, platforms, reputational rules); interventions that alter network governance, information flows or modular roles can change who captures value and how experiences are composed.

Demonstration

Illustrative scenario: Situation — Regional producers, a digital booking platform, tour operators, logistics providers and destination marketers interact to sell culinary experiences. Recognition — Fragmented discovery and booking limit margins for small producers. Action — A platform integrates listings, standardizes service commitments and enables direct bookings with shared review data and settlement rules. Consequence — Producers gain wider market access and higher effective prices; operators assemble bundled experiences more easily; platform governance determines fee distribution and trust mechanisms.

Misapplication

Mistaken interpretation: reducing a value network to a linear supply chain and focusing investment on a single node. Semantic error: ignoring bidirectional information, platform roles and governance that shape value capture; result is misallocated interventions that fail to leverage network complementarities.

Consequence

Accurate mapping of a value network enables targeted policies or investments (platform rules, interoperability, training) that amplify shared value and innovation. Misdiagnosis leads to inefficient subsidies, missed coordination opportunities and persistent market frictions.

Reversal

Qualification: In highly hierarchical or vertically integrated sectors, network effects may be weak and value capture concentrated at dominant firms; digital disruption can rapidly reconfigure network roles, so interventions must account for dynamic shifts.

Boundary

Clearly within — an ecosystem where multiple interdependent actors jointly create packaged culinary tourism products via a booking platform with shared information. Boundary case — a single supply chain with clear upstream/downstream roles but limited multi‑party co‑creation. Clearly outside — an isolated firm operating independently without reciprocal transactions or shared governance mechanisms.

Semantic Tension

Decentralization ↔ Centralized Platform Control: decentralized cooperation can broaden value distribution, while centralized platforms can scale matching and trust but concentrate capture and governance influence.

Synthesis

Viewing markets as value networks shifts strategy from optimizing single firms or links to shaping relationships, platform rules and governance that determine how value is created, experienced and distributed across actors in food, hospitality and tourism.