International Journal of Industrial Engineering & Production Research

Customer value creation is a critical determinant of organizational success and competitiveness in emerging industries. This study evaluates the efficiency of the customer value creation process in 33 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tile and ceramic industry, with a focus on the interaction between strategic entrepreneurship and organizational innovation capabilities. To achieve this, a two-stage network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) integrated with cooperative game theory is developed, providing a rational framework to resolve potential conflicts between different stages of value creation. In the first stage, strategic entrepreneurship components are considered as input factors, while in the second stage, organizational innovation capabilities act as intermediate variables driving final customer value creation. The analysis is conducted under variable returns to scale, accounting for surplus inputs and outputs. Results indicate that the main inefficiencies originate in the second stage, where weak transformation of innovation capabilities into tangible customer value has a stronger negative impact than deficiencies in entrepreneurial activities. Enhancing the synergy between opportunity identification and innovation utilization offers practical implications for improving SME competitiveness and operational performance. By addressing a research gap in which strategic entrepreneurship and innovation capability are rarely integrated within a unified efficiency framework, this study introduces a novel two-stage analytical approach that can be applied to value creation analysis in emerging industries.