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.     

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.     

Servitization: A contemporary thematic review of four major research streams

Servitization describes the addition of services to manufacturers' core product offerings to create additional customer value. This study aims to identify the key themes and research priorities in this body of literature over thirteen years from 2005 and 2017, based on four major research streams (general management, marketing, operations, and service management). Prior multi-theme literature reviews have focused on operations journals, overlooking important work in other streams, particularly marketing. Informed by a systematic literature review of 219 papers, the study identifies five main themes: service offerings; strategy and structure; motivations and performance; resources and capabilities; service development, sales, and delivery. Within each theme, gaps in the literature are identified and eleven research priorities presented. The review shows that the literature has evolved significantly in recent years, becoming increasingly diverse. A recent noteworthy topic is the use of digital technologies, which indicates the increasing relevance of technological developments to manufacturers' service activities. Our review highlights that there are still some fundamental aspects of servitization that warrant further research, primarily the need to replace the focal-manufacturer perspective with a multi-actor perspective that highlights the important role of relationships with existing and potentially new actors as a result of technological developments.     

Dealing with challenges to methodological pluralism: The paradigm problem,psychological resistance and cultural barriers

This paper calls for methodological pluralism in industrial marketing research. We discuss three challenges that proponents of methodological pluralism have to address if their practice is to be seen as credible: the paradigm problem; psychological resistance; and lack of cultural readiness to accept pluralism. We review the works of a variety of authors from other disciplines who have tackled these problems, and identify useful ideas to take forward into a model of learning. This addresses the paradigm problem by making it clear that no pluralist methodology can exist without making its own paradigmatic assumptions. It deals with psychological resistance by talking in terms of learning, starting from wherever the researcher is currently situated (a large knowledge base is not needed to begin practicing methodological pluralism). However, this model does not deal with the question of whether the time is right, culturally, for methodological pluralism. We argue that the time will be right when it is widely appreciated that methodological pluralism adds value to industrial marketing research practice. The next step for our research community must be the accumulation of a body of empirical evidence to demonstrate that this added value does or does not exist.     

The key issues and procedures of industrial marketing research

Industrial marketing research has failed to receive its due attention in marketing books and journals, even though the volume of transactions in industrial goods and services is more than twice that of consumer goods and services. This article provides a systematic and wide ranging review of the issues, procedures, and opportunities found in industrial marketing research.     

Supply chain management in industrial marketing–Relationships matter

The focal research topics in industrial marketing management have evolved significantly since IMM was first published in 1971. Part of this evolution has been the inclusion of research in supply chain management, which is the focus of this paper. The purpose of this paper is to assess themes across the classic articles in supply chain management (SCM) published in IMM, and explore how the field of SCM has evolved since their publication. A systematic literature review was used to assess SCM research in IMM, identify themes and publication patterns, and use these themes to assess gaps in extant research and opportunities for future research. Results of the literature review show that over 58% of the SCM research published in IMM has focused on buyer-supplier relationships and other purchasing and supply management topics. These will continue to be key topics in IMM. In addition, our literature review suggests opportunities for more SCM research in IMM around sustainability, logistics, and manufacturing innovation. These areas within the SCM umbrella are under-researched, yet yield significant opportunities for future research in a time of constant change within companies' distribution models.     

The tribes in the field of servitization: Discovering latent streams across 30 years of research

The servitization domain consists of over three decades of multi-disciplinary research on service activities in industrial contexts. Servitization literature combines different research streams that share a set of critical concepts. Existing meta-analytical studies have organized information content of sub-streams, homogenized theoretical propositions, and concepts to discover shared patterns, and identified an implicit meta-narrative. This study reverses the meta-analysis direction to deconstruct the servitization body of knowledge using the dynamic topic modeling (DTM) methodology to analyze 550 research articles. DTM enables complex forms of content analysis that combine quantitative and qualitative analysis. The analysis demonstrates how these streams have informed the development of the servitization domain and shaped the collective construction of this body of knowledge. The contributions of this study are threefold. First, the study increases understanding of the conceptual dynamics and thematic trends within the servitization research domain and the nuances between the sub-streams. The study offers some strategies for the future development of the field, facilitating the renewal of the servitization-related research agenda. Second, it illustrates the role of DTM as an alternative tool for conducting a literature review. Finally, it supports the development of a common language for the servitization field, thereby reducing the entry barriers for new contributors and favoring the knowledge transfer to professionals.     

The Roles of Marketing and Industrial Design in Discontinuous New Product Development*

Radical or “discontinuous” products based on new technological breakthroughs are playing an ever‐increasing role in the success of firms. However, little research has been conducted that investigates the roles of marketing and industrial design (ID) in the development of these types of products. Further, past research has tended to overlook the role that industrial design, and the impact of the marketing‐industrial design interaction, can have on the development of discontinuous new products. Frequently, the term design is used broadly or is equated with engineering; thus, while the marketing–research and development (R&D) interaction is studied, the marketing–ID as well as the industrial design–R&D relationships are not considered. This article examines the roles of marketing and industrial design in the product development process for discontinuous innovations. Specifically, questions concerning how and the degree to which marketing and industrial design are integrated into the development process are investigated. The investigation employs multiple methods, or triangulation, in order to secure an in‐depth understanding of the roles of these disciplines. In the course of examining these questions, key factors influencing industrial design and marketing involvement are identified and preliminary models are examined. The research, which was conducted in two phases, employed a mixed‐method, multiple sample design. The methods used included a survey, field observation study, and depth‐interviewing. Data were collected from three different samples: R&D managers, project team members (including personnel from various disciplines—marketing, R&D, industrial design, engineering, etc.), and industrial design managers. The use of the different data sources and sampling of various groups of managers was employed in order to provide a rich context for investigating the research questions of interest. In addition, a preliminary analysis of factors (e.g., degree of product discontinuity, product innovation objectives, process discontinuity, process formality) identified in the first phase was conducted, and these relationships were explored further in the second phase of the research. Findings across the two phases of this research suggest that the development of discontinuous new products involves a process that is different from more conventional new product development—particularly as it concerns the roles of marketing and industrial design. The high degree of discontinuity inherent in such projects, along with the strong R&D orientation often surrounding them, results in delayed involvement of marketing and ID, as well as altering their roles in the new product development (NPD) process. Factors such as the degree of product discontinuity (DPD), process discontinuity (PCD), and process formality (PF) seemed to exert a differential influence on the involvement of marketing and ID. Although their roles and involvement are altered in discontinuous new product development, this research suggests that marketing and ID roles in this context involve increased challenges with respect to validation of key assumptions and product application directions. Additionally, managers operating in this development context need to explicitly consider the influence of factors such as discontinuity level in undertaking NPD projects with respect to how it affects the execution of industrial design and marketing activities.     

Business relationships in the industrial network literature: Three approaches and their underlying assumptions

The industrial network literature contains underlying assumptions about the nature of business relationships. We use change as a vehicle to unearth these assumptions and conduct a systematic review of change in business relationships in the industrial network literature. We identify three approaches to business relationships: agency, structure and practice. Our research contributes to the industrial network literature by explicating how change in business relationships is derived implicitly from what people do, the surrounding structures, or the logic underlying their action. This research helps provide construct clarity by elaborating the key assumptions and key constructs of the three approaches as well their implications for business relationships research.     

Different roads to servitization success – A configurational analysis of financial and non-financial service performance

Much servitization research is ambiguous regarding its conceptualization of servitization success and the results are often inconclusive or even contradictory. The present study argues that this is because servitization success is understood best as a multidimensional, causally complex phenomenon, and adopts a configurational approach. The purpose of this study is to shed light on prominent, but inconclusive success factors, their interdependencies, and their causal role in leading to servitization success. A state-of-the-art fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis is applied to a sample of 143 German manufacturing companies. The complex relationships between focus of the service offering on services supporting the product and services supporting the clients actions, the existence of a separate service organization, decentralization of decision making, management commitment to services, service orientation of corporate culture, and financial, non-financial, and overall service success are disentangled. A service oriented corporate culture, decentralized decision making, and management commitment to services are identified as necessary for servitization success; 3 configurations as sufficient for servitization success and 3 configurations as sufficient for a lack thereof. These findings paint a more realistic and multifaceted image of the causal relationships underlying servitization success, thus yielding useful suggestions for the management of servitizing businesses.     

Introduction to the special issue on the nature of industrial marketing work

Peter Drucker once remarked that everything degenerates into work, and if it does not degenerate into work, nothing gets done. This special issue presents our vision for generating more analytical attention to the nature of industrial marketing work and to explore ways in which future research can contribute to this nascent research area. In this introductory article we seek to scope out an agenda for taking some of the themes of industrial marketing work further. In particular, the review points to the opportunities within industrial marketing, drawing on the intersections of Margaret Archer's morphogenetic agency approach with the neoinstitutional and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) fields of study. It then highlights the useful contributions of the papers in this special issue. Our contribution lies in advancing new avenues for researching and, in so doing, ensuring something gets done to research this nascent area.     

Cognitive computing,Big Data Analytics and data driven industrial marketing

The integration of cognitive computing and big data analytics leads to a new paradigm that enables the application of the most sophisticated advances in information and communication technology (ICT) in business, including industry, business to business, and related decision-making process. The same paradigm will lead to several breakthroughs in the subfield of industrial marketing: a field both promising and extremely challenging. This special issue makes a case that cognitive computing and big data are a source of a new competitive advantage that, if properly embraced, will further consolidate industrial marketing management position in the of core the decision-making process of businesses operating locally and globally. In this vein, the value added of this special issue is twofold. On the one hand, this special issue communicates high quality research on big data analytics and data science as it is applied in industrial marketing management; On the other hand, it proposes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the design, implementation and provision of sophisticated applications and systems necessary for data-driven industrial marketing decisions.     

Marketing competencies and the sources of customer value in business markets

This introduction to the special issue discusses the notion of marketing competencies in buyer-supplier relationships, and the role these competencies play in creating value for the customer. Existing work on the role of competencies in industrial marketing has two main foci. The first, established approach deals with competencies as inputs to organizational processes, and seeks to establish in how far marketing competencies such as customer relationship management, channel design, etc. lead to superior financial returns. The second, emerging, approach focuses on the marketing of competencies as a source for customer value. This article uses supply and demand side perspectives to look at these two approaches and suggests a typolology involving four distinct value-creation strategies. Recent literature is discussed and implications for advancing the application of resource-based thinking to industrial marketing are provided.     

Are rigor and transparency enough? Review and future directions for case studies in technology and innovation Management

It is crucial to assess how technology and innovation management (TIM) scholars use case-based research. Our study provides a theoretical systematic review of qualitative case-based articles published in 31 TIM journals from 2013 to 2018. Our analysis of 311 articles uncovers patterns regarding rigor (including case justification and selection), transparency (including data collection and analytical methods), and paradigmatic consistency and pluralism. Our findings show some evidence of emerging pluralism in how TIM researchers perform qualitative case studies, but also highlight some worrying trends: paradigmatic inconsistencies, lack of transparency, and over-reliance on specific approaches, all of which affect the value of case study research. We provide methodological guidelines for improving the use of qualitative case research in TIM.     

Servitization in global business-to-business distribution: The central activities of manufacturers

Manufacturers' servitization development is a prevalent trend in the current business world. Companies then aim to increase customer closeness and complement product offerings with services. However, extant literature on distribution and marketing channels literature remains limited in terms of the implications of servitization for global business-to-business distribution. Therefore, this qualitative multiple case study identifies the central activities of servitizing manufacturers in global distribution. The study concludes with the following research propositions: Servitizing manufacturers develop global service portfolios and customize offerings according to local customer characteristics; build global operation models and adjust local service processes; ensure global brand coherency and design the customer experience according to local customer expectations; and create global value propositions and enhance local value co-creation with business customers. The study outlines managerial implications in terms of organizing global distribution. It also discusses new knowledge sharing and capability needs regarding solution sales, service provision and customer relationship management.     

A systematic review of the trade show marketing literature: 1980–2014

The trade show marketing literature has been growing over the past decades, attracting a steady stream of research and journal publications. However, this body of research has not been subject to a systematic literature review. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to provide a systematic review of the trade show marketing literature with the aim of delineating its current state, trends, gaps and inconsistencies. To this end, multiple electronic databases were searched and 91 trade show articles published in 24 marketing journals were extracted. The extracted articles were carefully analyzed with the help of a comprehensive classification framework focusing on broad thematic, theoretical and methodological dimensions. The findings revealed that: (a) trade show research is marked by inconsistencies that concern core thematic issues, such as trade show participation modes, trade show activity stages and trade show performance; (b) trade show research is atheoretical for the most part, but has become increasingly theory oriented in recent years; and (c) trade show research is heavily dependent on a combination of cross-sectional designs and surveys, with limited application of other designs and data collection approaches. Building on these findings, the review proposes an extensive research agenda to help move the trade show marketing literature forward.     

Social media research in the industrial marketing field: Review of literature and future research directions

Since the emergence of social media, industrial marketing academics and marketers have also been intrigued by the influence of such media on the discipline. As, social media research in the field of industrial marketing has been of increasing interest, this research attempts to review and assess the advances in social media research in the industrial marketing field. From the literature review conducted, it can be identified that some of the research areas have witnessed steady theory development increases, e.g., sales and marketing communications, while others are clearly lagging behind, e.g., pricing and ethics. Also methodological pluralism is called for instead of more traditional methods (conceptual analysis, qualitative and survey) to establish and solve more nuanced research problems. This research provides a review of the current state of research in the field and suggests directions for future development.     

The digital marketing capabilities gap

Over the past two decades, digitalization has revolutionized not only consumer marketing but also industrial marketing. Both industrial marketing scholars and industrial marketers seek insights to understand how our knowledge and practice of digital marketing has been structured and configured. To address this gap, we adopt the resource-based perspective as an organizing framework and systematically review 129 articles spanning two decades of research to identify different digital marketing capabilities in industrial firms. From this analysis, we identify four themes: channels, social media, digital relationships, and digital technologies. We then stress-test this knowledge with managerial practices by conducting an online survey of 169 managers, designed to establish the repertoire of current and future marketing capability needs of industrial firms. Herein, we identify two marketing capabilities gaps: the practice gap—which identifies the deficit between managers' ‘current’ practices and their ‘ideal’ digital marketing capabilities; and, the knowledge gap—which demonstrates a significant divide between the digital marketing transformations in industrial firms and the extant scholarly knowledge that underpins this. Based on these results, we build an agenda for future research on digital marketing capabilities.     

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.     

An Agency Theory perspective on the purchase of marketing services

The purchase of business services has become an important part of organizations' acquisition of external resources, and is therefore receiving growing scholarly attention. The supply management function is increasingly supporting more complex service purchases, including a wide range of marketing services. The trend to involve supply management in the purchase of these complex business services is partially being driven by increasing awareness of the value of applying standard purchasing techniques to the purchase of these non-standard items. The purchase of such services has historically been managed by content experts, with limited involvement of supply management. However, the involvement of supply management in these purchases is driving the content experts to adopt a more facilitating relationship in which both areas interact with the supplier. This research uses Agency Theory as a lens to look at the Agency Triad among supply management, marketing, and suppliers. Elaborating on prior seminal work, the basic tenets of Agency Theory and its assumptions regarding human behavior are combined with the results of a focus group and case studies to develop propositions on the design of contractual arrangements between two Principals (marketing and supply management) and a single Agent who provides marketing services.