Rethinking established assumptions about manufacturers' service-led growth strategies

Both academics and practitioners emphasize the importance for product firms of implementing service-led growth strategies. The service transition concept is well established, namely a unidirectional repositioning along a product-service continuum—from basic, product-oriented services towards more customized, process-oriented ones—ultimately leading to the provision of solutions. We challenge this service transition assumption and develop alternative ones regarding how product firms should pursue service-led growth. Using ‘problematization methodology’, and drawing on findings from thirteen system suppliers, we identify three service-led growth trajectories: (1) becoming an availability provider, which is the focus of most transition literature; (2) becoming a performance provider, which resembles project-based sales and implies an even greater differentiation of what customers are offered; and, (3) becoming an ‘industrializer’, which is about standardizing previously customized solutions to promote repeatability and scalability. Based on our critical inquiry, we develop two alternative assumptions: (a) firms need to constantly balance business expansion and standardization activities; and (b) manage the co-existence of different system supplier roles. Finally, we consider the implications for implementing service-led growth strategies of the alternative assumptions.peerReviewe

Institutional work by market-shaping public actors

AbstractPurposeThis study aims to identify institutional work mechanisms that public actors employ in market shaping.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses an abductive theorizing process, combining a literature review with an empirical exploration of three different market-shaping contexts.FindingsThe study identifies 20 granular mechanisms of institutional work that market-shaping public actors employ. These mechanisms are all potentially employable in creating, maintaining or disrupting markets. Institutional work vis-à-vis individual institutions may differ in direction from the institutional work vis-à-vis the market system. Public actors are not a homogeneous group but may have different values and support competing institutional logics even when operating in the same market.Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical data were limited to three cases in three small open economies. Data collected from other markets and with other methods would provide more rigorous insight into market-shaping public actors.Practical implicationsThe findings revealed institutional work mechanisms that public actors can use to shape markets. Companies wanting to engage public actors in market shaping should be aware of the values and institutional logics that influence market-shaping public actors.Originality/valueThe paper unites and expands on the scattered knowledge regarding institutional work in market shaping. It illuminates and dissects the role of public actors in market shaping, challenging the reactive stance that is often assigned to them. The study provides a better understanding of how conflicting market views affect markets. It also brings insights into the interplay between market-shaping actions and the multiple levels of market systems.</p

Institutional logics matter when coordinating resource integration

Resource integration has become an important concept in marketing literature. However, little is known about the systemic nature of resource integration and the ways the activities of resource integrators are coordinated and adjusted to each other. Therefore, we claim that institutions are the coordinating link that have impact on value cocreation efforts and are the reference base for customers’ value assessment. When conceptualizing the systemic nature of resource integration, we include the regulative, normative, and cognitive institutions and institutional logics. This article provides a framework and a structure for identifying and analyzing the influence of institutional logics on resource integration in service systems

(Engaging or avoiding) change through reflexive practices

In this article, we explore the ways in which individuals deploy reflexive practices in order to avoid or engage with a call to change either oneself or the social context. We begin by developing a categorization of the modes of reflexive practice associated with avoidance or engagement. We go on to develop - through a relationally reflexive research process - three contributions that build on this. First, we build an understanding of what a repertoire of reflexive practices may include, and "what is going on" in such reflexive practices. Second, we explain how reflexive practices can be mobilizing, thereby enabling shifts between avoidance and engagement modes, or fix action within a single mode. Third, we develop an understanding of the ways in which emotions and relationships influence how reflexive practices of either kind are deployed.PostprintPeer reviewe

Integrated Solutions in the Capital Goods Sector : Exploring innovation, service and network perspectives

With varying degrees of success, a number of firms in the capital goods sector are experimenting with different ‘integrated solutions’ initiatives. Integrated solutions include product innovations which enable increased process control that allows the optimisation of the customers’ processes, as well as business innovations which change the firms’ business models and customer approach. It is not always easy to develop and commercialise these new offerings, especially for firms that have traditionally focused on developing and selling products. Integrated solutions challenge these firms to shift the focus from physical products, spare parts and support services to emphasis on delivery of performance optimisation and productivity. This thesis is a compilation of five papers and five supporting chapters that discuss and analyse the challenges with developing and commercialising integrated solutions in the capital goods sector. The research builds on case studies of firms experimenting with integrated-solution offerings. The firms produce complex, expensive industrial machinery to customers in the process and manufacturing industries. The main case is based on a five-year, in-depth longitudinal study of Alfa Laval, and more specifically of the developments within the wastewater industry. Other case studies include ITT Flygt and Atlas Copco. The thesis shows that the development and commercialisation of integrated solutions represent a multifaceted, iterative and complex process for the firms under study, who need to combine product, service and business innovations, create new business structures, and create new relationships with customers and possible partners. Consequently, the development of integrated solutions is not confined to or explained by one theoretical field in this thesis, but is linked to innovation, service and network perspectives. The thesis also shows that the three activities of innovating, organising and building relationships are dependent on changing market structures, customer demands and business cycles. Therefore it becomes important to manage the coexistence of different types of offerings, such as products, services and integrated solutions

Integrated solutions from a service-centered perspective : Applicability and limitations in the capital goods industry

  Although advanced services, or so called integrated solutions, have increasingly received attention in the literature, no coherent body of literature exists, and the relational dimensions and consequences of integrated solutions are not explored in detail. Based on the emerging literature, we develop a framework identifying four different categories of integrated solutions: rental, maintenance, operational and performance offerings. We also compare and contrast the service- and the goods-centered logics with the logic of integrated solutions, and thereby show how the reciprocal interdependencies increase between customers and suppliers. We explore these interdependencies further in three case studies of firms experimenting with integrated solutions, and identify dependencies related to process knowledge, process  optimization, and process operations. The paper shows that rather than moving along a linear continuum from goods to services, firms developing integrated solutions need to balance elements of both goods- and service-logics, as well as manage the increased customer – supplier interdependencies that integrated solutions entail.Original Publication:Charlotta Windahl and Nicolette Lakemond, Integrated solutions from a service-centered perspective: Applicability and limitations in the capital goods industry, 2010, Industrial Marketing Management, (39), 8, 1278-1290.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2010.03.001Copyright: Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam.http://www.elsevier.com