1,721,116 research outputs found
Service business development in small and medium capital goods manufacturing companies
No full textPurpose – This paper focuses on how small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) from the capital goods manufacturing sector develop the service business. Assuming the service business development depends on contingency factors, this paper explores how SMEs align external environment, strategy and organizational design.
Design/methodology/approach – A multi-case study design on capital goods manufacturers from Italy, Sweden and Switzerland was employed.
Findings – Service strategy formation and implementation in SMEs depend on their value chain position and the business environment. Suppliers with few customers selling directly to customers increasingly offer logistic and repair services as well as R&D-oriented services. In contrast, OEMs selling through distributors do not primarily extend the services offered, but rather reconsider service process configuration together with distributors. Altogether, we de-scribe four different service responses to specific combinations of value chain position and business environment.
Research limitations/implications – Our findings are limited to the capital goods manufacturing industry.
Originality/value – Whereas previous research neglects how SMEs develop the service business, this article offers key insights in the interrelationship among the value chain position and the business environment as well as the service strategy formation and implementation. We enrich the knowledge of service business development in manufacturing by explaining how the value chain position and business environment determine the way how SMEs develop the service business
Characterizing service networks for moving from products to solutions
No full textManufacturers of capital goods may not be able to master internally all the relevant service activities for moving from products to solutions. As well, it is rarely economically viable for them to do so. Consequently, they increasingly resort to complex service networks that embrace traditional product-orientated and verticallyintegrated supplier-customer relationships. Through multiple case studies this paper identifies four different types of service networks involved in the provision of solutions, and the capabilities necessary for forming and utilizing such networks. The types are:
a). vertical after-sales service network, b). horizontal outsourcing service network, c). vertical life-cycle service network, and d). horizontal integration service network.
Analyzed through the perspective of the “focal firm”, these network types promote understanding of the movement towards providing integrated solutions for products and
services. The service components included in the solution drive the formation of the network along the vertical and horizontal dimension. The formation and utilization of
each service networks type require a specific set of dynamic capabilities (to initiate a specific network formation), and operational capabilities (that allow the network firms to develop, integrate and deliver the service components of the solution), discussed in the paper
Internet of things technologies, digital servitization and business model innovation in BtoB manufacturing firms
No full textTechnologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) are offering new opportunities and posing serious challenges to firms, forcing them to create entirely new business models, migrating from the conventional product-centric approaches to (digitally-based) service-oriented ones. This paper – following a qualitative research method – aims at describing the service-oriented impact of IoT technologies on firms' business models, with a particular focus on opportunities and challenges for BtoB manufacturing firms. Being the impact of IoT technologies on businesses a quite recent research stream, to date scarce attention has been devoted to the topic with specific attention to its impact on service-oriented business models in manufacturing firms. The paper contributes in this research stream in different ways. It proposes a map of digital servitization that helps in understanding firms' strategic transitions caused by technologies, making both theoretical and managerial contributions. Firstly, the research underlines the impact of the firms' sales model as a strategic factor in shaping firms' digital servitization strategies. In addition, three progressive levels of digital servitization complexity are identified, namely product- process- and outcome-oriented, that are based on an increasing use of IOT technologies and have specific challenges and opportunities
L'offerta di servizi e soluzioni nelle imprese manifatturiere: possibili approcci strategici
No full textCharacterizing service networks for moving from products to solutions
No full textManufacturers of capital goods may not be able to master internally all the relevant service activities for moving from products to solutions. As well, it is rarely economically viable for them to do so. Consequently, they increasingly resort to complex service networks that embrace traditional product-orientated and vertically integrated supplier–customer relationships. Through multiple case studies this paper identifies four different types of service networks involved in the provision of solutions, and the capabilities necessary for forming and utilizing such networks. The types are: a). vertical after-sales service network, b). horizontal outsourcing service network, c). vertical life-cycle service network, and d). horizontal integration service network. Ana- lyzed through the perspective of the “focal firm”, these network types promote understanding of the movement towards providing integrated solutions for products and services. The service components included in the solution drive the formation of the network along the vertical and horizontal dimensions. The formation and utilization of each service networks type require a specific set of dynamic capabilities (to initiate a specific network formation), and operational capabilities (that allow the network firms to develop, integrate and deliver the service components of the solution), discussed in the paper
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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