The structure of a traditional (non-platform) business, in which a firm first designs a product or service, then manufactures the product and offers it for sale or puts in place a system to deliver the service. At the end of the value chain a customer purchases the product or service. This step-by-step arrangement for creating and transferring value can be viewed as a value chain, with producers at one end, distributors in the middle and consumers at the other. This model of business is in comparison to a platform model (see platform definition).
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