Digital servitization: Crossing the perspectives of digitization and servitization

For over three decades now, several product companies around the world have been undertaking servitization paths. They have been devoting growing and substantial efforts to expand their service business. Expanding the service business in addition to their traditional core product business secures long-term growth and strengthens competitive advantages in business-to-business marketplaces. Recently, service business expansion has taken up many of the new digital technologies offered through the digital transformation. Thus, the servitization literature has progressed toward a dialogue on digital servitization . Against this background, the present article introduces the reader to this special issue. It first recalls key aspects of the emerging digital servitization discussion, and then depicts, through illustrative case studies, the growth paths utilized by industrial product companies when they take advantage of the digital servitization process. After discussing how the articles included in this special issue advance the literature, the article develops a number of directions for future research on digital servitization.     

How to perform collaborative servitization innovation projects: the role of servitization maturity

Although current literature indicates that openness and collaboration are crucial for success in an innovative servitization solution within interorganisational servitization projects, research is limited compared to that on product and technology innovation projects. Moreover, this emerging servitization literature is limited to the traditional lead-firm perspective within larger consortiums. To help redress the balance, our research studied six collaborative servitization projects in mobile information and communication technologies (mICT) to explore why some open innovation efforts succeed in simultaneous service and product innovation with a market application of innovative solution, while others do not. The study provides empirical evidence that only a small number of projects resulted in an effective servitization innovation solution. This conclusion emphasises the complexity of creating service innovation in the mICT sector. By comparing better performing servitization projects with those that were less successful suggests that higher performance, in terms of novel service development, requires more than mere strong intention, adequate leadership and change management competencies. Rather, it also requires real servitization maturity in terms of a shared servitization framework and market-oriented innovation.     

Explaining servitization failure and deservitization: A knowledge-based perspective

The literature on servitization suggests that manufacturers benefit from moving towards solution provision and closer integration with customers. Yet, empirical evidence indicates two notable deviations from this accepted wisdom: servitization failure and deservitization. This conceptual article seeks to explain these observed deviations by developing a knowledge-based perspective on servitization. Drawing on literature on knowledge-based theory, organizational search, organizational learning, and organizational capabilities, the article analyses the interorganizational structure of production between the solution provider and its customer. Reconceptualizing the integrated solution offering as a bundle of knowledge components, a coherent theoretical framework is developed for understanding servitization. This framework provides insight into the antecedents and consequences of servitization and offers multiple explanations for servitization failure and deservitization. The knowledge-based perspective also points towards several new avenues for future research on servitization.     

Sourcing practices and boundaries of the firm in the financial services industry

We investigate sourcing decisions related to the back‐office operations of 108 processes used by financial services companies. Guided by the arguments of transaction cost economics and the resource‐based and knowledge‐based view of organizations, we hypothesize that service customization and volume represent two key drivers of a service company's sourcing decisions. The inherent uncertainty of service customization gives rise to the transaction cost risks of opportunism and holdups and thus favors insourcing. Moreover, the competency gained from performing high‐volume back‐office operations aligns with the tenets of the resource‐based view, which also favors insourcing. The empirical results corroborate these theoretical expectations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Challenges of servitization: A systematic literature review

The challenges of servitization have gained significant attention from both academics and practitioners, as more firms in the industrial sector are seeking marketing opportunities leading to business growth through the adoption of a service strategy. Although existing research has explored its challenges from multiple perspectives, this is largely fragmented and the studies offer little understanding of the impacts of the challenges on the realisation of servitization benefits and improvements in business performance. This study, therefore, aims to create a formal construct of the challenges and develop a set of hypotheses through a systematic review of the servitization literature to build a theoretical model explaining the underlying relationships. Five challenges are identified: organisational structure, business model, development process, customer management, and risk management. The indicators of each challenge are discussed to support the establishment of hypotheses. This study contributes to the current body of knowledge by reaching a clear conclusion from the fragmented literature and brings together five challenges to explore their impacts on the overall business.     

Product biographies in servitization and the circular economy

This paper questions the assumption in much of the marketing and product-service literature that products can be treated as stable platforms for the delivery of services. Instead, it uses the notion of the product biography to argue that products are chronically unstable, both physically and institutionally, and focusses on the managerial and institutional effort required to temporarily stabilise and qualify products for exchange or service value-creation. The context of the circular economy, which presents particularly acute challenges of qualification, is used to stimulate insights into how the product biography approach can inform the servitization debate. In particular, the circular economy perspective emphasises the need to see products as qualified by and constitutive of a distributed network, rather than defined once and for all by their producer, and points to entrepreneurial opportunity in the moments of transition between singularised, unique specimens and general, commodified, manageable objects – and vice versa. The wider and multiple product biographies occasioned by the circular economy also lead to reconfiguration of networks, as new potential valuations give rise to new entrepreneurial spaces.     

Meta-model of servitization: The integrative profiling approach

This study develops a profiling framework that allows systematic comparison of different value constellations of industrial, service-based business models. Following the systematic review method, 154 research articles on servitization are analyzed using this profiling approach, producing an integrative meta-model of servitization. Three different approaches to represent servitization in studies are identified: 1) end-state models; 2) gradual transition models, and 3) stepwise progression models. These are systematically compared and eight conceptually different, generic value constellations ranging from low to high levels of servitization are identified: products with limited support; installed and supported products; complementary services; product-oriented solutions; systems leasing; operating services; managed service solutions; and total solutions. These form a pattern of servitization showing increases in complexity of the offering and value for the customer as well as changes in operational responsibilities in the value constellations. This approach resolves the gap of conceptual incommensurability’ in the literature by providing a reference against which the different value constellations of servitization can be compared. The meta-model connects the various perspectives, models and terminology into a base line theory of servitization as a process, and enables a systematic comparison of the different empirical studies.     

Perception of value delivered in digital servitization

This paper intends to explore the perception of value delivered in digital servitization in a business-to-business context of incumbent manufacturing firms. We investigate how individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) influence and affect the adoption of such digital servitization strategies. The observations are made through a survey and empirical assessment across a couple of large industrial organizations interested in servitization and digitalization. Findings contribute to the existing literature on digital servitization and business model innovation by suggesting that IEO influence perceived value in delivering digital service offers, whereas functional affiliation does not. Further observations suggest that digital capabilities can become a crucial enabler for the perception of value delivered in digital business models by providing swift access to data for affected stakeholders.     

Behind the scenes of digital servitization: Actualising IoT-enabled affordances

Manufacturers are increasingly transforming through servitization, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is a crucial enabler of this transformation. Current literature describes the diverse outcomes from IoT that enable servitization but fails to explain the reasons behind the diversity and the processes manufacturers go through to create these outcomes. This study aims to identify these processes by drawing on affordance theory and its core principles of affordance perception (understanding an opportunity provided by technology) and affordance actualisation (taking advantage of an opportunity provided by technology). By using affordance theory to analyse the case scenarios of six manufacturing firms, the study develops a framework to explain the realisation of the opportunities the IoT provides to manufacturers' servitization efforts. The analysis identifies three types of affordances and actualisation processes that help manufacturers realise the opportunities of the IoT. This framework enables manufacturers to systematically manage the contributions from the IoT and the associated actualisation efforts required to advance servitization. The study adds to the understanding of the IoT's role in a manufacturing servitization context.     

Boosting servitization through digitization: Pathways and dynamic resource configurations for manufacturers

The importance of digital technologies for services in manufacturing has often been posited, but current literature has neglected to explain how companies can leverage digital methods to increase their service offering. In this article we contribute to current theory by examining how digitization can enable servitization for manufacturers. By performing a multiple-case study at four manufacturing SMEs, we provide evidence for a priming and a capability effect. In terms of priming, we find that specific digitization options lead to three servitization pathways: industrial, commercial and value servitization. Through a dynamic resource-based lens, the barriers, dynamic resource configurations and competitive benefits specific to each pathway are discussed. Finally, this paper offers managers insight on successfully reaching higher service levels through development of digital assets, and on the skills necessary to further integrate into customers' processes.     

Unpacking Firm Exit at the Firm and Industry Levels: The Adaptation and Selection of Firm Capabilities

Evolutionary theory of business activity studies how firms are selected out of environments in which they do not fit, but most existing work underemphasizes the distinction between acquisition and dissolution as selection processes. We address this gap with a multilevel analysis that investigates how managerial and functional organizational capabilities affect whether struggling firms exit by acquisition or dissolution. We demonstrate that managerial and functional capabilities have heterogeneous effects on selection processes, with managerial capabilities having particularly strong influence on acquisition exits by struggling firms. The work provides a bridge between adaptation and selection views on organizational change; exit by dissolution represents selection of both firms and capabilities, while exit by acquisition represents firm selection but capability adaptation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transforming provider-customer relationships in digital servitization: A relational view on digitalization

Digitalization is viewed as a source of future competitiveness due to its potential for unlocking new value-creation and revenue-generation opportunities. To profit from digitalization, providers and customers tend to move away from transactional product-centric model to relational service-oriented engagement. This relational transformation is brought about through digital servitization. However, current knowledge about how providers and customers transform their relationship to achieve benefits from digital servitization is lacking. This paper addresses that knowledge gap by applying the relational view theory to a study of four provider-customer relationships engaged in digital servitization. The results provide evidence for four relational components – complementary digitalization capabilities, relation-specific digital assets, digitally enabled knowledge-sharing routines, and partnership governance – that enable providers and customers to profit from digital servitization. A key contribution is the development of a relational transformation framework for digital servitization that provides an overview of how the four relational components evolve as the relationship progresses. In doing so, we contribute to the emerging servitization literature by offering key relational insights into the interdependence of activities throughout the transformation phases of provider-customer relationships in digital servitization.     

Strategies and boundaries: Subcontracting in construction

A central concern in studying organization environment relationships has been the issue of how boundaries of organizational activity are defined and altered. A specific organizational response that pertains to the issue of boundaries is subcontracting. Construction is one industry where subcontracting is used extensively. Eccles' (1981a) study shows, however, that there is great variation in the subcontracting practices of contractors. This paper reports an exploratory study on the possible determinants of the extent of subcontracting by the construction firm.     

Critical meta-analysis of servitization research: Constructing a model-narrative to reveal paradigmatic assumptions

The literature on servitization in the manufacturing context has grown rapidly. This study is the first systematic analysis of the paradigmatic assumptions of servitization research. Considering scientific research as a rhetorical activity, this study introduces the methododological approach to industrial marketing management research. This systematic review identifies both stylistic and structural aspects characterizing servitization research. The current review is based on a representative sample of 55 articles covering marketing, management, operations, innovation, and entrepreneurship research. The review discovered four paradigmatic assumptions that guide servitization research: 1) alignment to the Western narrative of constant development; 2) realist ontology; 3) positivist epistemology; and 4) managerialism. Following these findings, the study develops alternative directions for servitization research to challenge these paradigmatic dominances. The refined method of the model-narrative has the potential to generate insightful future research in the field of industrial marketing management. As an effective approach to analyzing research streams systematically, it facilitates critical meta-level reflection on servitization and could be widely applied beyond that topic.     

企业网络与企业边界理论

在对现有企业边界理论进程重新梳理之后，我们从管理理论中抽象出经济学意义上的企业网络概念。在此基础上，我们对企业的类型进行了重新分类，并界定了每种企业的边界以及相应的经济含义．希望对进一步理解企业和市场的关系提供新的研究视角和思路。     

Alliance Concentration in Multinational Companies: Examining Alliance Portfolios,Firm Structure,and Firm Performance

Research summary: This article explores the distribution of alliances across firms' internal structure. Focusing on multinational companies, we examine the impact of alliance portfolio concentration—i.e., the extent to which alliances are concentrated within a limited number of geographic units—on focal firms' performance. Relying on Knowledge‐Based View (KBV) insights, we hypothesize that an increase in alliance portfolio concentration positively influences firm performance and that alliance portfolio size negatively moderates this relationship. Our empirical results enrich the emerging capability perspective on alliance portfolios, point to the relevance of conceptualizing focal firms in alliance portfolio research as polylithic entities instead of monolithic ones, and provide new insights into how firms create value by potentially recombining externally accessed knowledge. Managerial summary: In the setting of multinational companies, we examine whether alliance activities are concentrated in a limited number of subsidiaries or are highly dispersed across multiple subsidiaries. We find that, over time, firms exhibit different patterns in terms of alliance portfolio concentration. In addition, the results show that, for MNCs with a relatively small alliance portfolio, an increase in alliance portfolio concentration is positively related to their financial performance. However, when MNCs' alliance portfolios are relatively large, the relationship between alliance portfolio concentration and firm performance becomes negative. Jointly, these findings suggest that the distribution of alliances across firms' internal structure is an important factor in shaping potential knowledge recombination benefits from alliance portfolios. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficiency and Firm Ownership: Some New Evidence

The paper investigates the effect of state ownership on efficiency of firmsusing an econometric model that allows for the separation of technical from allocative efficiency in adynamic setting. The estimation results, based on a sample of international airlines, suggest that state ownershipis associated with lower technical and allocative efficiency. State ownership's effect on technical efficiencyis mainly a dynamic one – lowering the rate of cost decline, whereas its effect on allocativeefficiency is static – raising the level of costs. Thus lower technical, rather than allocative, efficiency isthe main reason for state-owned firms to be less efficient than their private counterparts.     

Trust and the Flexible Firm: International Comparisons

Japanese and German manufacturers are more successful than their counterparts in Britain and France in achieving organizational flexibility, which depends on labor-management trust and cooperation. This trust developed in Germany and Japan over the post-World War II decades through the institutionalization of a system of labor-management consultation. This paper examines the role of power and social norms to explain why trust-building systems of joint consultation take hold in one place and not in another.     

创新行为与企业经营绩效:微观实证

创新是企业保持长久竞争力的不竭动力,创新行为对企业经营绩效会产生重要影响.运用面板随机效应模型和分位数回归方法,以2007年、2008年及2009年共3年的微观企业数据为样本,就创新行为与创业板公司的经营绩效进行了实证分析,研究表明:创新投入对经营绩效有正向促进作用,但缺乏弹性,并且其对经营业绩不好与经营业绩很好的公司影响都较小,最大受益者是经营业绩一般的公司.专利与企业经营绩效正相关,但专利对公司经营绩效条件分布的影响幅度并不稳定,表现出较大的波动性,非参数BootSrap方法表明以上回归结果具有稳健性.