Organisational change towards servitization: a theoretical framework

Abstract

Purpose The need for a holistic framework for studying organisational transformation towards Servitization is implicit. This is particularly relevant as Servitization demands consideration of both business model and organisational change. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to provide an integrative framework that systematically captures and evaluate existing literature on Servitization. Design/methodology/approach The aim of the paper has been achieved through three main objectives; comprehensively examine the literature in organisational change management that would assist with the selection of the most effective evaluation framework, classify previous studies against the proposed framework through a systematic literature review methodology and analyse the selected papers and propose research questions/propositions based on the identified gaps. Findings Results indicate that there are two somewhat macro opportunities for the Servitization community, namely, stronger infusion of generic theory into the Servitization debate and exploring Servitization in action through the lens of the theoretical framework. Practical implications The findings of the paper demonstrate the gaps in the Servitization literature, which indeed require further theoretical/empirical research. Originality/value It is discussed the usefulness and practicality of viewing research contributions that are setting out to be either “descriptive” or “prescriptive”. Consequently, the authors have proposed several avenues for future research based on these two viewpoints.

Industrial customers’ organizational readiness for new advanced services

“…Manufacturing companies servitizeshift from selling goods to selling goods and services combined (Baines et al, 2009) to attract new customers, differentiate themselves from competition and develop deeper customer relationships (Baines et al, 2009;Wise and Baumgartner, 1999). Adding new services to manufacturing firms' offering portfolios has attracted broad attention (Bigdeli et al, 2017;Kowalkowski et al, 2017). Some new services that manufacturing firms are increasingly concerned with involve advanced technologyenabled and data-based services (Momeni and Martinsuo, 2018).…”

Reviewing Literature on Digitalization, Business Model Innovation, and Sustainable Industry: Past Achievements and Future Promises

“…Another challenge relates to the need for better understanding of how to design, customize, evaluate, and sell/purchase intangible offerings. This is evident in the case of digitally enabled advanced service business models where the offer is neither a product nor a service but a promise of delivering a certain outcome for customers [11,14]. A new demand from digital technologies and business model innovation is to facilitate continuous improvement in order to keep up with competitors and provide long-term value to customers [15,16].…”

PSS business model conceptualization and application

“…We started our analysis with recently published reviews in the marketing and operations management fields (e.g. Carlborg, Kindström, and Kowalkowski, 2014;Eloranta and Turunen, 2015;Reim et al, 2015;Tukker, 2015;Qu et al, 2016;Brax and Visintin, 2017;Baines et al, 2017;Ziaee Bigdeli et al, 2017) and then backtracked through citations to identify other relevant contributions. At the same time, as a systematization of the current knowledge on the topic could not rely only on the sources adopting a BM approach, we also searched for relevant literature that deals with each of the BM components in Table 1. [Insert Figure 1 Building on the analysed body of literature, we developed a first version of the PSS BM framework, where each component was operationalized with variables derived from the literature.…”

“…Mathieu, 2001;Ulaga and Reinartz, 2011;Gaiardelli et al 2014;Kindström and Kowalkowski, 2014. Generally, as offerings become more servitized, companies include advanced services and services supporting the customer (Baines et al, 2017;Paiola et al, 2013 In PSSs, a tight relationship and improved interaction between the company and its customers are important success factors (e.g., Cova and Salle, 2008;Davies et al, 2007;Galbraith, 2002), enabling the mutual creation of value. In fact, the success of the value co-creation process relies heavily on customers' efforts and involvement (Sheth and Uslay, 2007).…”