To Be or Not to Be the Servitization Dilemma and the Role of Design

This article seeks to answer the question of how value proposition is created using a human-centred approach in the context of deservitization, in general, and service dilution, in particular. The article aims to describe the journey of a company which undertook service dilution and used human-centred design to create a new product-oriented value proposition. The study adopted a research through design approach in conjunction with a single case study of an engineering and manufacturing services provider that recently initiated a service dilution process. Within the framework of university-business collaboration, a design project was developed. The main insights of the study pertain to the role of human-centred design as a way of learning and surpassing the pure exploitation of existing capabilities during the service dilution process. Learning by design is also seen as a potential alternative learning process that fuels exploration during the service dilution process

Second-degree frugal innovation in the Belgian healthcare system

The innovation space created by designers within healthcare is meant to empower users (e.g., nurses, patients and therapists). Due to the variety of users and systems involved, this is a complex task. Often products fall short or do not bring the empowerment they promise, eroding “our sense of independence” (McDonagh & Thomas, 2010, p. 182). In this context, the concepts of frugal innovation and sustainability-as-flourishing have been implemented. Specifically, we asked 10 design teams to redesign idiosyncratic hacks generated by local healthcare professionals with the goal of upscaling into marketable products-systems for flourishing, without losing the goodness of fit. Even though the process produced very interesting business ideas, that still would fit with the idea of frugal innovation (in terms of cost reduction and locality, for example), some tensions have been highlighted and discussed in the paper

Innovation-related Activities in a Low-tech Industry : A Study of the Electroplating and Surface Treatment Industry in Sweden

Given the complex and interdependent nature of innovation, it is a diverse phenomenon which takes place both in high‐ and low‐tech industries. The purpose of this paper is to increase our understanding about low‐tech industries’ innovation‐related activities and the specific capabilities of the companies that influence those. To achieve this purpose this study has performed an empirical analysis of the Swedish context of the Swedish Electroplating and Surface Treatment Industry (ESTI) and the characteristics of the companies operating in it. It investigated how the companies perceived their expertise and innovative activities in comparison with their main competitors. The main types of innovation the ESTI companieshad undertaken in a three‐year period (2004–2006) were studied. The research and development (R&D) and personnel qualification improvement expenditures were explored. The study looked into collaboration and the factors which companies perceived as important in order to collaborate. Our empirical evidence shows that innovation in the ESTI is shaped notby R&D but by other determinants, such as specific and rare capabilities in, for example, processing technologies, logistics, ability to spot, evaluate and exploit external knowledge as well as their ability to establish and sustain intercompany relationships. Strong relationships and integration with customers and suppliers emerge as pivotal for the innovation‐related activities in the ESTI. Additionally, close collaboration, facilitated by a strong intermediate institution, such as the Swedish Association of Surface Treatment Companies (Svensk YtbehandlingsFörening – SYF, also shape the innovation‐related activities in the ESTI

Education for flourishing : an illustration of boundary object use, peer feedback and distance learning

Purpose Teaching sustainable development at the higher education level requires that existing curricula are supplemented with multi-disciplinary (and sometimes multi-national) collaboration and integrated thinking. The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of a particular framework for business model innovation for sustainability-as-flourishing that is used as a boundary object in the context of interdisciplinary, peer-assessed distance learning. This study is positioned in the broader picture of enlarging curricular content so as to reflect the systemic and interconnected nature of socio-technical and economic developments. The motivation behind this study is the authors' wish to achieve a deeper understanding of how students engage with the complex concept of sustainable business modelling, while using the flourishing business canvas (FBC). Design/methodology/approach An experiment was conducted on the use of the FBC as a boundary object among 52 engineering students at two universities. Data were provided by the following: iterations of the FBC; oral and written peer feedback; and an online survey. Findings Based on an evaluation of the experiment, this study shows that the FBC supports the use of multi-disciplinary, multi-national peer and distance learning in sustainability education. Research limitations/implications This study used one test condition of multi-disciplinary, multi-national collaboration for peer and distance learning at one point in time. Additional tests, using the tools and approaches of this study, are needed. Originality/value Various tools and methods for use in education have been developed that support a new view of sustainability -sustainability-as-flourishing. Extant research focusses primarily on the development of tools and methods in this area. Not enough attention has been paid to the analysis of their implementation and use in higher education. This paper seeks to fill that research gap

Mapping the intangible : Service design tools for understanding customer value in business model innovation for servitization

In business model innovation (BMI) for servitization, it is essential for manufacturer to identify a set of specific (non)monetary and (in)tangible value attributes (Prior, 2013), that specify the valuable features of product, service, parts of delivery process and even business relationship. Such understanding of customer value serves as the basis for further design of the new product-service system and how it can be created and delivered (Frankenberger et al., 2013). However, developing understanding about customer value becomes one of the main challenges for manufacturers trying to servitize (Martinez et al., 2010; Mathieu, 2001) due to several reasons. Firstly, manufacturers and their customers perceive what is valuable differently (Lindgreen et al., 2012). Secondly, intangible nature of servitized value propositions makes it difficult for manufacturers to change their traditionally product-focused transactional models into the ones providing long-term relationship-based product-service offerings (Vladimirova et al., 2011). Finally, there is lack of tools and procedure guidance on how manufacturers can approach customer value identification in B2B context in practice, especially its intangible part (Keränen & Jalkala, 2013) that goes beyond straightforward financial value. Service design has already been suggested as a potential enabler to support manufactures in “how” to practically approach servitization transformation (e.g., Sangiorgi et al., 2012; Thurston & Cawood, 2011) due to its human-centred, creative, iterative approach to the creation of new services (Blomkvist, Holmlid, & Segelström 2010). In this paper we study how service design tools can facilitate understanding customer value in BMI for servitization. We use several empirical cases with manufacturers that are in the initial phase of BMI for servitization (Simonchik et al., 2015; Val et al., 2013). In these cases, we study how the use of selected service design visualization tools (Maps, Narratives, Images & Flows) through co-creation workshops helps manufacturers to (i) identify tangible and intangible value attributes (e.g. product quality, service flexibility etc. and (ii) use them further in designing new product-service systems. Preliminary case analysis shows that service design tools help participants think beyond their products, providing a broader perspective of the complete value proposition throughout the whole customer experience including products, services, processes of delivery and relationships. The understanding of how the customer will potentially interact with the future value proposition lays the groundwork for the design of new product-service systems. The cases also show that service design visualization tools provide the ability to experiment with how to create and deliver specific tangible and intangible value attributes in a quick and easy way through mapping and prototyping. With this paper we hope to contribute to manufacturer’s efforts in increasing their service orientation in BMI for servitization. Results of this study have implications for managers at manufacturer’s side putting effort to overcome among others such challenges of servitization as changing the product-centred perspective of own employees (Löfberg, 2014). References Blomkvist, J., Holmlid, S., & Segelström, F. (2010). This Is Service Design Research: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. In This Is Service Design Thinking, Stickdorn M., & Schneider, J. eds. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers, 308-315. Frankenberger, K., Weiblen, T., Csik, M., & Gassmann, O. (2013). The 4I-framework of business model innovation: an analysis of the process phases and challenges. International Journal of Product Development, 18(3), 249-273. http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJPD.2013.055012 Keränen, J., & Jalkala, A. (2013). Towards a framework of customer value assessment in B2B markets: An exploratory study. Industrial Marketing Management, 42(8), 1307-1317. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2013.06.010 Lindgreen, A., Hingley, M.K., Grant, D.B., & Morgan, R.E. (2012). Value in business and industrial marketing: Past, present, and future. Industrial Marketing Management, 41(1), 207-214. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2011.11.025 Löfberg, N. (2014). Service Orientation in Manufacturing Firms - Understanding Challenges with Service Business Logic. Doctoral Dissertation. Karlstad University Studies. Sweden. Martinez, V., Bastl, M., Kingston, J., & Evans, S. (2010). Challenges in transforming manufacturing organisations into product-service providers. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 2(4), 449-469. Mathieu, V. (2001). Service strategies within the manufacturing sector: benefits, costs, and partnership. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 12(5), 451–475. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000006093 Prior, D.D. (2013). Supplier representative activities and customer perceived value in complex industrial solutions. Industrial Marketing Management, 42(8), 1192-1201. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2013.03.015 Sangiorgi, D., Fogg, H., Johnson, S., Maguire, G., Caron A., & Vijakumar, L. (2012). Think Services. Supporting manufacturing companies in their move toward services. In Service Design and Innovation Conference, ServDes2012, (pp. 253-263). Helsinki, Finland. Simonchik, A., Iriarte, I., Hoveskog, M., Halila F., & Justel, D. (2015). Service Design Tools for Business model innovation in B2B. In British Academy of Management Conference 2015 BAM 2015. Portsmouth, UK. Thurston, P., & Cawood, G. (2011). The Product Advantage from Service Design. Design Management Review, 22(4), 70-75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1948-7169.2011.00159.x Val, E., Iriarte, I., Perez de Arenaza A., Alzaga, X., & Arrieta, X. (2013). Human Centered Design in Danobat Group Railways. In 17th International Congress on Project Management and Engineering, (pp. 1502-1510), Logroño, Spain. Vladimirova, D., Evans, S., Martinez, V., & Kingston, J. (2011). Elements of Change in the Transformation towards Product Service Systems. In J. Hesselbach & C. Herrmann (eds.), Functional Thinking for Value Creation: Proceedings of the 3rd CIRP International Conference on Industrial Product Service Systems, (pp. 21-26). Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19689-8_6BMI Win