Business innovation through customer‐value creation : Case study of a virtual education business in Japan

For the various cyber businesses of the future based on the Internet, multimedia and other new electronic fields, business organization styles, management methods and the distribution of management resources must be re‐structured to accommodate the transformation of the business environment. This article examines the case of a virtual education business in Japan, which has recently been garnering attention as a knowledge‐based business that utilizes multimedia, networks, etc. It considers how Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Japan’s largest telecommunications carrier, created business communities based on strategic partnerships with various customers, and how then, through customer value creation‐model businesses based on knowledge innovation within these communities, it created a new virtual education business.