Image risks of servitization in collaborative service deliveries

Although servitization is seen as a potential process for reputable goods manufacturers to expand their business, it also involves risks to company image. External partners, such as suppliers and third parties, have played an increasing role in manufacturing firms' service business, but their image effects are poorly understood. This paper discusses the image risks of servitization in manufacturing companies, particularly when they operate collaboratively with third parties. An embedded case study was conducted in two units of a case company in the engineering industry. The results revealed that a good company image plays a key role in customers' selection of service providers, but this image is strongly influenced by third-party performance during service delivery. As a key contribution, this study suggests that third-party image risks are strategic issues that can direct and guide the servitization process at the level of strategy, operations, and company identity.     

中国出口制造业投入服务化水平测度——基于贸易增加值视角

本文根据2018版OECD-ICIO数据,采用贸易增加值测算法测度了2005-2015年中国出口制造业投入服务化水平,我们发现:在考虑出口二元结构的条件下,2005-2015年中国制造业整体投入服务化水平平均值为26.89%,呈上升趋势;国内投入服务化水平高于国外且呈现出不断"以国内服务替代国外服务"的变动趋势;相比于一般贸易,加工贸易出口制造业投入服务化水平更高但增速较缓,加工贸易国内服务投入比重较低但服务化增速较快;相比于资本和知识密集型制造业,劳动密集型制造业的高端生产性服务尤其是国内高端服务投入比重较低。     

Servitization and networking: large-scale survey findings on product-related services

This research paper aims at analyzing the impact of servitization on networking in manufacturing industries. Based on a cluster analysis, four types of manufacturers have been identified representing different stages of servitization. By multifactorial regressions, the impact of servitization on service networking has been investigated. Servitization is positively linked with increasing service networking activities of manufacturing companies. This finding implies that problems in realizing service networking do not prevent servitizing manufacturers from establishing inter-firm collaboration for service operations management issues. However, the results indicate that the mere existence of service networks can not guarantee success in servitizing.     

The role of salespeople in industrial servitization: How to manage diminishing profit returns from salespeople’s increasing industrial service shares

Business-to-business companies often differentiate themselves from competitors by complementing goods with services. While extant literature on servitization points to substantial benefits for companies and underscores the importance of the sales force for successful servitization, it has rarely empirically investigated the negative effects of and barriers to effective selling of servitized offerings at the salesperson level. Drawing on transaction cost theory, we propose that with rising service shares, the specificity of offers and transaction costs grow, partially offsetting the financial benefits. We derive four salesperson factors that moderate the effect of salespeople’s industrial service share on salespeople’s profit. These factors pertain to the extent to which salespeople individualize offers and effectively manage offers’ specificity (adaptiveness, customer valuation skills, experience). We test our conceptualization with data from 220 salespeople and company records. The results are robust to endogeneity and show that service share has a diminishing positive effect on salesperson profit. While salespersons’ offer individualization enforces this harmful effect, salesperson adaptiveness and customer valuation skills show beneficial moderating effects. This study provides valuable insights for researchers and managers into the role of the sales force in servitization and into salesperson factors conducive to realizing the full profit potential of servitized offerings.     

服务化理论最新研究进展

服务化是制造业升级的重要途径,企业采用服务化战略实现由制造向服务转变,可以获得新的竞争优势。文章通过梳理国内外服务化理论的经典文献,阐述服务化的定义、目标与研究内容,归纳理论构成的主要维度：影响因素、发展策略和管理模式,并详细介绍了各维度的主要观点和演化过程。最后,基于对现有研究成果的总结和评述,运用系统思维和价值共创等概念,构建了服务化理论框架,并探索未来的理论发展方向。     

制造业服务化改善了资源错配吗？——基于中国309个城市面板数据的经验研究

结合WIOD数据和我国工企数据,从城市层面实证制造业服务化对资源错配的影响,探寻我国制造业高质量发展的有效路径。结果表明：(1)制造业服务化能够显著改善资源错配,相比中西部城市,对东部城市资源错配的改善效果更明显;(2)专业科技、金融保险、批发零售和运输仓储服务化对资源错配均具有显著的改善效应,特别是金融保险服务化的影响最大,而信息通讯服务化的资源优化效果并不明显;(3)行政效率的提高可以协同制造业服务化显著降低城市的资源错配程度;(4)高技术和市场竞争的发展有助于制造业服务化改善东部城市的资源错配情况,但会加剧中西部城市的资源错配。     

价值链分段化与环保成本对制造业的影响分析

在知识经济时代,由于无形的服务活动日益替代有形的产品成为价值增值的主要来源,尤其是知识密集型的服务要素对价值链关键环节的价值增值起着决定作用,并引发了制造业服务化的转型。在制造业力图通过服务化转型升级的过程中,环境问题对价值链各环节的影响变得日益重要。本文分析了环保成本变化对制造业价值链的影响,这些变化又是怎样进一步影响到制造业的收益变化,以及在这一背景下制造业如何实现转型升级。     

Unpacking the effect of strategic ambidexterity on performance: A cross-country comparison of MMNEs developing product-service innovation

This study tests whether strategic ambidexterity improves Product-service innovation (PSI) outcomes for manufacturing multinational enterprises (MMNEs). It also tests successful pathways to develop PSI properly by organizing exploitation and exploration activities. Data from a survey of 338 MMNEs are analysed through Structural Equations Modelling. The sample contains firms from five world regions, including emerging economies. This approach enables contrast to determine cross-country heterogeneity in PSI outcomes. The results show that, to maximise firm performance, PSI must be developed through a sequential Exploitation-Exploration pathway. Although this optimal sequence is consistent across all world regions (except Japan), noticeable contextual differences emerge in the relative importance of exploration and exploitation to firm performance. Our findings show that exploitation (i.e., cost efficiency through PSI design) and exploration (i.e., PSI R&D) capabilities are equally important in emerging economies.     

Cost-efficient co-creation of knowledge intensive business services

The most significant difference between industrialization-driven product marketing and digitalization-driven service marketing can be seen in the definition of value creation, and the exchange (integration) of resources. Industrialization created efficiency in scale, whereas digitalization requires customer-oriented business models and value co-creational service processes. This research follows the value co-creational and system integrational views of service-dominant logic. We have explored how relative profitability can be increased through efficient service productization. Our approach is twofold, we have explored the commercialization of co-created services (the servitization of product-service systems) and the enhancement of service production by service processes. We have created service management framework for modular service delivery where company resources be linked to cost-efficient co-creation services.     

Servitization of Global Manufacturing Business

This study examines important but understudied issues in the servitization of global manufacturing firms. We begin with a review of the literature that suggests that global manufacturing firms can grow by integrating services into traditional products in a rapidly changing business environment. We fill a gap in the literature by considering exogenous (i.e., country-level and industry-level) and endogenous (i.e., firm-level) antecedents of servitization. We posit that home-country institutional development has a positive effect on global manufacturing firms’ servitization. We also posit that a high level of industry competition is favorably associated with servitization and that a firm’s technological capability and geographic diversification are related to servitization. To test these arguments, we made a comprehensive data set by using the Thomson Reuters database, which provides the financial information of 301 global manufacturing firms in the 2015 Forbes Global 1,000, and by using annual reports published on the websites of the firms.

     

中国装备制造业服务化对其出口边际的影响分析

本文借鉴Hummels和Klenow(2005)的思路,对中国装备制造业的出口边际进行解构,采用装备制造业对生产性服务业的完全消耗系数表示装备制造业的服务化程度,实证检验发现其对三元边际均产生促进作用,且主要通过数量边际促进出口;在不同要素密集度的产品中,装备制造业服务化程度对技术密集型装备制造业产品出口边际的传导更有效;在不同收入水平的出口目的国中,装备制造业服务化程度对高收入国家装备制造业出口边际的传导更有效,但对其出口的扩展边际和价格边际的促进作用并没有得到完全发挥,因而从政府的角度提出与进口国展开精准合作的"装备外交"、与企业协同合作、推进装备制造业服务化等对策建议.     

Reversed servitization paths: a case analysis of two manufacturers

The literature on service business in manufacturing companies posits that manufacturers “servitize” by increasing the proportion of services offered. This study presents two paths that are contrary to such forward-unidirectional servitization, indicating “reversed servitization.” In the first case, a capital goods manufacturer lost visibility to its installed base due to evolving product technology. We use the case of photocopier manufacturer Xerox to support our findings; a regulation change forced Xerox to move from a service-based toward a product-based business model. We thus propose that influencing environmental factors need to be researched and that the literature of organizational ecology may serve as a complementary perspective.     

Innovations in service business. An introduction to the special issue from the Global Entrepreneurship and Services Conference, Taiwan, 2011

Services tend to be intangible and not visible (Cherubini 2001), which make them very different from production-oriented industries. Hence, we need different approaches to solving problems in services. This special issue invites five papers from the 2011 Global Entrepreneurship and Services Conference held in Taichung, Taiwan, from August 29 to 31, 2011. These papers cover various industries including finance, manufacturing, and Internet. Meanwhile, these papers cover many CSFs for services including brand equity for financial services, customer satisfaction on an auction website, the effects of social networking, the servitization for manufacturers via R&D, and the comparisons of the internal service quality for three Chinese subcultures including Taiwan, China, and Singapore. All these papers contribute to innovations in service business from different perspectives.     

Digitalization Capabilities as Enablers of Value Co‐Creation in Servitizing Firms

As manufacturing companies pursue a servitization strategy, they are increasingly relying on developing digitalization capabilities to interact and co‐create value with their customers. However, many lack an understanding of what constitutes digitalization capabilities and how they can create value with customers. To address these questions, the study builds on qualitative data from four industrial manufacturing firms to conceptualize three underlying subcomponents of digitalization capabilities, namely, intelligence capability, connect capability, and analytic capability. The study identifies and explains how digitalization capabilities enable value co‐creation with customers through perceptive and responsive mechanisms. This study contributes to the servitization literature by showcasing how digitalization capabilities are enabling value co‐creation in a business‐to‐business context.     

Value logics for service innovation: practice-driven implications for service-dominant logic

Service-dominant logic (SDL) provides a conceptual understanding of and widens the view on value creation in service innovation for product-centric companies. However, empirical research linking SDL and service innovation is still limited albeit expanding. This study provides insights beyond existing discussions on product and service dimensions using the theoretical lens of the value logic perspective. More specifically, the purpose of this study is to examine how value can be understood, targeted, and created in the pursuit of service innovation by product-centric manufacturing companies. Building on a previous investigation of two multinational product-centric manufacturing companies, this paper identifies and develops a theoretical model to describe the space shift in service innovation with four different kinds of value logics, namely, product-based value logic, service-based value logic, virtual-based value logic, and systemic-based value logic. Using a digitalization-driven new service innovation, namely the My Control System, which is a web-based service delivery platform, this paper describes space shifts to enhance value through four value logics as efforts. Further, challenges associated with different value logics are described in terms of complexity traps and service gaps. The study also contributes to bridging the gap between SDL theory and practice by developing a midrange theoretical model for value creation as a specification and amendment to SDL that supports SDL-guided service innovation and servitization in practice.     

Entry mode diversity and closing commercial deals with international customers: The moderating role of advanced servitization

As the importance of servitization and service-augmented solution delivery grows into a mainstream phenomenon for manufacturers, offering theoretically founded avenues to solve their specific internationalization challenges is necessary. The study addresses the internationalization paradox faced by servitized manufacturers generated by the specific hybrid nature of their product-service offering. As such, this research is meant to understand the entry mode diversity for the internationalization of advanced servitization providers. Our primary research deal-level data follows 1885 potential sales negotiations for servitized products closed in 2018 by a Poland-based multinational high-tech optics firm offering product-service systems. The results of the study support the idea that manufacturers of advanced servitization could benefit from the implementation of entry mode diversity. It is found that the sales deal success when entry mode diversity is implemented in a foreign market is positively moderated when knowledge-intensive advanced servitization is included in the negotiation.     

PRODUCT FULFILLMENT IN SUPPLY CHAINS SUPPORTING INTERNET‐RETAILING OPERATIONS

Customer service, based on economical logistics operations across the supply chain, is key to the realization of sustainable levels of profitability in Internet retailing. Concentrating on inventory and product‐release operations, an empirical simulation model suggests that inventory centralization and market demand growth positively affect the level of cost‐effective service received by online shoppers. The results also show that under increasing demand levels, Internet retailers can provide optimal service to consumers by fulfilling orders through inventories located at their own facilities and avoid relying on inventories held elsewhere in the supply chain.     

推进我国现代服务业集聚功能园区发展的财税政策选择

我国现代服务业存在发展规模小,发展水平落后,结构不合理,支撑体系不完整等问题。从财税政策的角度看,选取功能园区试点,加大对服务业集聚功能园区财政投入;加大市场基础设施建设投入,明确支持重点,调整财政投入结构;用服务业引导资金弥补服务业领域的"市场失灵",建立多元化投资的风险投资机制;完善税收优惠政策,选准税收优惠政策支持的切入点;推动服务业增值税转型改革,促进我国服务业风险投资的发展;完善促进产、学、研联合和科研机构转制企业专项税收优惠政策,改进企业所得税相关的折旧政策和费用列支政策,并实行投资抵免制度等扶持现代服务业集聚功能园区的发展。     

辽宁省装备制造业服务化发展对策研究

伴随着科学技术和经济全球化的不断发展,全球性产业调整和区域转移也逐渐向纵深发展,国际装备制造业出现了新的发展趋势。辽宁省作为我国重要的装备制造业基地,是带动东北三省老工业基地发展的重要动力源,也是带动我国装备制造业发展的火车头。围绕辽宁省经济发展现状,分析了制造业服务化转型升级的必要性,阐述了制约装备制造业服务化的因素并提出了相关建议。     

Investigating a revised service transition concept

This paper seeks empirical validation of a revised conceptual framework of ‘service transition’ that re-interprets the adoption of advanced services by manufacturing firms as a progressive expansion, rather than a shift or migration, of the offering. Using cluster analysis and logistic regression, three groups of firms are identified with respect to the offering of four categories of services, ranging from basic to highly advanced services. Results indicate that advanced services predominantly complement, rather than replace, basic or less advanced services, supporting the revised conceptual framework. In doing so, the paper responds to the call for empirical research that quantitatively validates the conceptual foundations of the field of servitization. Nevertheless, the clusters identified provide a reference scheme to scrutinise potential synergies between sets of services that can complement and leverage each other.