From a traditional steel producer towards an industrial product-service systems provider in the German offshore wind market - a system-oriented practical case study

Abstract

Globalisation and overcapacities lead to increasing competition within the steel market. Hence, steel producers are forced to enter promising markets like the offshore wind market. Moreover, they have to offer innovative products like industrial product-service systems (IPS 2 ). Both entering the offshore wind market and offering IPS 2 are challenging (each aspect per se is ambitious and above all the combination) since these two aspects demand for a shift of the steel producer's existing business model. Especially, the adaption of the key resources within the business model is challenging. In particular, the steel producer needs to acquire new competencies. Against this background, there is an urgent need for an integrative analysis of the decision-making problem concerning the acquisition of these competencies. For this purpose, the system-oriented and holistic approach of system dynamics is used within a practical case study.