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On the Sustainable Relationship between Product-Service Innovation and Outcomes: Pitfalls and Solutions

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2021) | Viewed by 3584

Special Issue Editors

Department of Management, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Interests: product–service innovation; servitization; digital transformation; data-driven decision-making
TBS Business School, Toulouse, France
Interests: territorial servitization; strategy
ESIC Business & Marketing School, 28043 Madrid, Spain
Interests: strategy; organizational structure; servitization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Product-service innovation (PSI) describes the processes for developing the business models of services in manufacturing contexts that are often opened-up by the use of digital technologies (Bustinza, Vendrell-Herrero, & Gomes, 2020). Therefore, PSI is a type of digital-enabled technological innovation focused on understanding the interaction between production processes and service operations sustained by smart manufacturing module implementation. In this sense, PSI represents the innovation perspective for understanding servitization in manufacturing, particularly concentrated on analyzing the innovation outcomes achieved from the most complex form of manufacturers’ service offerings: advanced services (Baines et al., 2017). Even when the theoretical benefits of developing PSI have been effusively studied (Rabetino, Harmsen, Kohtamäki, & Sihvonen, 2018), whether and how these innovative business models affect firm performance remains unresolved as the effect seems to clearly depend on contextual aspects of the organization (Bustinza et al., 2018; Kowalkowski, Gebauer, Kamp, & Parry, 2017). Consequently, the relationship between PSI and performance identified in the literature reflects all kinds of functions: linear, decreasing returns, (inverse) U-shape, cubic relation, etc., meaning that, in practice, theoretical PSI benefits are blurred.

Some of the reasons behind the unclear relationship between PSI and performance lie in the choice of dependant variables, usually overall performance measures (customer, financial, operational, etc. performance measures), and the scarcity of appropriate innovation-outcome measures related to the unique resources and distinctive capabilities generated. Following this reasoning, it is clear that the main examples of successful PSI development take the form of distinctive capabilities generation: Rolls-Royce’s Total Care provides passenger mobility, Xerox’s Print Management provides printing capabilities, MAN’s Pay-per-Kilometre provides distance traveled, Bombardier’s Transportation or Hitachi Rail provide trains’ availability, reliability, or cleanliness, Caterpillar guarantees costs per operating hour of equipment, etc. showing that PSI benefits come in the form of cross-leveraging resources and capabilities across products and services (Visnjic, Jovanovic, Neely, & Engwall, 2017). Analyzing these examples, it is plausible that overall performance is sustained on these singular capabilities generated by PSI.

Considering that resources and capabilities are antecedents of overall performance measures, there is a critical need in the servitization literature to understand the path followed by firms in terms of pitfalls to avoid and solutions to take for successfully developing PSI. In other words, a decision-making perspective is needed to gain a grained understanding of the complexity behind PSI capabilities generation. To better frame the innovation perspective of servitization, there are several reasons to take a decision-making approach (Roberts, 2001): 1) Literature at this moment has developed a general knowledge of PSI benefits; 2) Even though this knowledge exists, the successful development of PSI depends on the specifics of the situation; 3) There are few key examples of firms showing successful PSI capability generation. Therefore, to understand the relationship between PSI and performance, a richer repository of case studies of successful practices for generating singular PSI capabilities is needed. These company field case studies should report the firm’s name and require approval from the company. In summary, these cases will report decision-making processes in terms of pitfalls to avoid and solutions to take in successfully developing novel PSI-oriented business models. Therefore, this Special Issue will contribute to the necessary and requested understanding of the transition from descriptive to prescriptive theory around servitization in manufacturing (Baines et al., 2017), where relationships were not just sustained on correlations but causes.

This Special Issue will publish case studies with a high theoretical basis that are not only impactful for scholars but also specifically relevant for practitioners and executives. Therefore, explorations of the paradoxes faced by manufacturers during the servitization transition, characterized by both pitfalls and solutions, that can help to generate good practices leading to successful servitization pathways are welcome. The Special Issue calls for a more critical and nuanced approach that unravels, through the lens of successful manufacturing firms’ examples, successful transition pathways to servitization, paying special attention to the role of PSI as a unique resource and distinctive capability generator. Topics of interest include the analysis of firms facing servitization paradoxes in the form of balancing product and solution logics, i.e., having product engineering vs. a customer-centric solutions mindset, continuously developing the product business vs. explorative learning towards a new solutions business, etc. (see Kohtamäki, Rabetino, & Einola, 2018 to get more detailed information about these paradoxes). Additionally, other welcome topics include, on one hand, the identification of unique resources developed by PSI as increased product installed base, new business model development, or increased sales force and distribution network; and, on the other hand, distinctive capabilities generated in terms of data processing and interpretation, risk assessment and mitigation, modularity, life-cycle orientation, ecosystem positioning, product and service innovation balance, or synergistic product and service culture (Story et al., 2017; Ulaga and Reinartz, 2011). We expect to receive company field case studies dealing with these issues.

Papers selected for this Special Issue are subject to a rigorous peer review procedure with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of results, developments, and applications. Furthermore, a special session on the Special Issue will be held during the 9th International Conference on Business Servitization (ICBS 2021). ICBS is an annual international conference for academics and research-oriented practitioners devoted to all areas of servitization and product–service innovation in industry. ICBS (www.servitization.org) is one of the leading international conferences for presenting novel and fundamental advances in the field of servitization. The special session will be chaired by the Guest Editors and aims to identify studies suitable for this Special Issue. Researchers are welcome to present their work and discuss their ideas with the Guest Editors. Presentation at the special session does not guarantee acceptance of the paper for publication and attending to ICBS 2021 is not a precondition for acceptance into the Special Issue.

Submissions should be accompanied by an assurance of originality and exclusivity and should adhere to the ‘Style and Format’ guide for authors that can be found on the journal’s website. If you have any queries regarding manuscripts, please direct them to Prof. Oscar F. Bustinza ([email protected]). All submissions will be subject to a rigorous double-blind peer review process, with one or more of the Guest Editors acting as editor.

References

  1. Bustinza, O. F., Vendrell-Herrero, F., & Gomes, E. (2020). Unpacking the effect of strategic ambidexterity on performance: A cross-country comparison of MMNEs developing product-service innovation. International Business Review, 29(6), 101569. doi: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2019.01.004
  2. Baines, T., Bigdeli, A. Z., Bustinza, O. F., Shi, V. G., Baldwin, J., & Ridgway, K. (2017). Servitization: revisiting the state-of-the-art and research priorities. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 37(2), 256–278. doi: 10.1108/IJOPM-06-2015-0312
  3. Rabetino, R., Harmsen, W., Kohtamäki, M., & Sihvonen, J. (2018). Structuring servitization-related research. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 38(2), 350–371. doi: 10.1108/IJOPM-03-2017-0175
  4. Bustinza, O. F., Vendrell-Herrero, F., Gomes, E., Lafuente, E., Opazo-Basáez, M., Rabetino, R., & Vaillant, Y. (2018). Product-service innovation and performance: unveiling the complexities. International Journal of Business Environment, 10(2), 95–111. doi: 10.1504/IJBE.2018.095819
  5. Kowalkowski, C., Gebauer, H., Kamp, B., & Parry, G. (2017). Servitization and deservitization: Overview, concepts, and definitions. Industrial Marketing Management, 60, 4-10. doi: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.12.007.
  6. Visnjic, I., Jovanovic, M., Neely, A., & Engwall, M. (2017). What brings the value to outcome-based contract providers? Value drivers in outcome business models. International Journal of Production Economics, 192, 169–181.
  7. Roberts, M. J. (2001). Developing a teaching case. Harvard Business School.
  8. Kohtamäki, M., Rabetino, R., & Einola, S. (2018). Paradoxes in servitization. In M. Kohtamäki, T. S. Baines, R. Rabetino, & A. Z. Bigdeli (Eds.), Practices and tools for servitization: Managing service transition(pp. 185–199). London: Springer International Publishing.
  9. Story, V. M., Raddats, C., Burton, J., Zolkiewski, J., & Baines, T. (2017). Capabilities for advanced services: A multi-actor perspective. Industrial Marketing Management, 60, 54–68. doi: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.04.015
  10. Ulaga, W., & Reinartz, W. J. (2011). Hybrid offerings: how manufacturing firms combine goods and services successfully. Journal of Marketing, 75(6), 5–23. doi: 10.1509/jm.09.0395

Prof. Dr. Oscar F. Bustinza
Prof. Dr. Yancy Vaillant
Dr. Francisco J. Sánchez-Montesinos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Product–service innovation (PSI) outcomes
  • Prescriptive theory about servitization implementation
  • Field case studies
  • PSI unique and distinctive capabilities
  • Servitization paradoxes
  • Pitfalls and solutions for developing successful PSI business models

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 1469 KiB  
Article
An insight on B2B Firms in the Age of Digitalization and Paperless Processes
by José Oliveira, António Azevedo, João J. Ferreira, Sofia Gomes and João M. Lopes
Sustainability 2021, 13(21), 11565; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132111565 - 20 Oct 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3051
Abstract
In recent years and due to market demand and environmental regulations, firms have been changing their procedures regarding document production, handling, and filling. There has been a paradigm change in document sustention in order to attain such changes, from paper-based to electronic forms, [...] Read more.
In recent years and due to market demand and environmental regulations, firms have been changing their procedures regarding document production, handling, and filling. There has been a paradigm change in document sustention in order to attain such changes, from paper-based to electronic forms, resulting in the Digitization and Paperless Office Program (DPOP). The literature on digitization and paperless processes is profuse; nonetheless, it is outdated, uses only single or multiple case study approaches, and is limited to specific industries, such as healthcare or higher education. To overcome this gap, this research analyses the current implementation of the DPOP in five major sectors by using a country scale approach; consequently, this research study contributes to strengthening the literature in this area of knowledge. The methodology used is quantitative and is based on a questionnaire distributed to the most important economic sectors (education, health, trade, industry, and services) in Portugal. The results show that a DPOP positively impacts companies, as it increases profitability and, in most cases, is a sine qua non condition for negotiating with clients. Additionally, it favours companies’ image, reduces costs, and contributes to environmental sustainability. This research provides new insights into how firms using a DPOP may contribute to dematerialization and paper consumption reduction. It is also original as it covers multiple sectors using a country approach. Full article
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