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Recently, lots of manufacturing companies have been attracted by the possibility to differentiate themselves from competitors introducing product related services in their traditional portfolio. During this transition, however, companies are not properly supported by proper methods and tools. In particular, the majority of the approaches addressing the PSS design are limiting their field of application only to "service design" and are specifically focusing on requirements generation and identification phases of the design process. Few of the approaches analysed contribute to concept development and evaluation phases and if so, they just address one of the two phases. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to propose the Product-Service Concept Tree (PSCT) method. This aims at suggesting a possible structure to identify, collect possible PSS solutions and manage their assessment (i.e. the selection of the best PSS to implement). Furthermore, it includes guidelines to lead industrial practitioners in easily use it. An application of the proposed method is also presented to demonstrate its industrial applicability

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PurposeIdentifying and tracking how knowledge management (KM) impacts on organizational performance represents a gap in the research. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the applicability of adopting a benefits management (BM) approach in order to identify KM benefits and elicit their contribution to the achievement of business objectives.Design/methodology/approachA case study was carried out in a systems and information technology firm in Portugal. The data were collected using interviews and documental analysis. The data were subjected to content analysis.FindingsBM can strengthen KM, not only by identifying the benefits, but also by aiding the process of organizational change required to achieve those benefits, considering the investment objectives, the necessary transformations and the allocation of responsibilities, among other aspects.Research limitations/implicationsThis research was based on a single case study. The findings cannot be generalized.Practical implicationsBecause it can be used to identify the role of KM in the achievement of the business objectives, the BM approach may be of use to managers who need to identify and explain the benefits of KM.Originality/valueThe originality of this research is that it uses the benefits management approach to link knowledge management to business objectives.

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