Corporate and customer understanding of core values regarding perceived quality: Case studies on Volvo Car Group and Volvo Group Truck Technology

Paper in proceeding, 2014

Core values are an important part of Volvo Car Group’s and Volvo Group Truck Technology’s strategic development plans. Both of these companies share the same three core values: Quality, Safety and Environmental Care, but they approach these values in different ways due to different customer demands. This study seeks to understand how industry professionals and customers perceive these core values and the attributes that are associated with them, using semi-structured interviews with industry professionals from both companies and quantitative survey methods with customers. The purposes of this study are to investigate how designers convey core values to customers through product attributes and how customers perceive those core values through the same attributes. Such an understanding can contribute to more effective design processes that communicate company values in the early product development phases.