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A stream of servitisation research has focused on the construction of taxonomies and typologies of product–service system business models (BMs). However, their relevance in the context of increased utilisation of digital technologies may be questioned. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to empirically revisit the existing product–service system BM taxonomies to explore the following research question: How can the BMs of servitised manufacturing firms be categorised in the digital era? The question is addressed through an embedded case study of five servitised firms. We found that the firms’ BMs varied with regard to the degree of the suppliers’ ownership of delivered products, degree of smartness of the services provided and degree of performance orientation of contracts. Based on these findings, we derived a new product–service system BM taxonomy with eight categories, presented in a 2 × 2 × 2 matrix, that significantly extends earlier taxonomies.

This paper focuses on challenges regarding managerial behaviour and productivity in the context of digitalisation. It is neither understood precisely how managerial behaviours transcribe digital strategy into economic success nor how opportunities from digital innovations are transferred into productivity. A systematic literature review (SLR) is applied to acquire an organised overview of the research question “How does managerial behaviour concerning digital innovations change productivity?” The outcomes of this paper are threefold: (1) The research question will be answered by showing several aspects managers can make use of to influence productivity. In this regard knowledge, change management and data-driven behaviours, the creation of collaborative settings, and (customer) co-creative aspects are of particular importance. (2) Executives will be motivated to reflect and calibrate their own practices. (3) The Gutenberg rooted framework of production factors is used to discuss the results and six suggestions are made to transform the model to digital readiness.

This study addresses the development of new integrated product–service systems (PSSs). Most empirical research on the organisation of development processes has focussed on new product development, new service development, software development and new business model development in isolation; however, the development of new, complex PSSs that require the integration of these development efforts has received limited research attention. We address this literature gap through a qualitative, in-depth study of five firms operating in the business-to-business context. The findings demonstrate that all new PSS development processes did not implement and use one specific process model. Instead, the organisation of new PSS development processes was contingent upon the type of services to be offered and the target business model. This study proposes a contingency framework for development processes that provides considerable guidance to managers searching for ways to facilitate the processes of developing new PSSs.

This research explores the role of information and communication technology (ICT) solutions in advancing the servitisation process in Korean firms. As a solution, manufacturing firms striving to implement servitisation can include ICT’s strategic linkage and its widespread usage in its manufacturing system. We investigated whether such methods provide differentiated service to clients and affect firms’ sales ratio and profits. Case studies consisted of three firms that have adopted ICT solutions to support the servitisation process. While the three firms have employed ICT solutions in varying degrees, they all have made substantial progress in servitisation according to financial documents. All analysis was done according to standard protocol.

Based on previous research on servitisation, we defined the standards and protocols to measure whether ICT plays an appropriate role in advancing servitisation. Data for these case studies are from the Korean Securities Market Annual Reports listed on the KRX (Korea Exchange). We checked the servitisation type and level for each case study and examined various kinds of value creation present in servitisation for firms and clients. We categorised the range of ICT solutions employed by firms into service monitoring, service evaluation, service integration, and front office.

We analysed these firms by using separate analysis frames in categories of ICT solution type by the profit model and value offering. Data analysis from 2014 to 2019 demonstrated annual increases in the proportion of service sales to product sales, and we inferred that there is a connection between the increase of service sales ratio and sales growth. Furthermore, we predict that gains, such as cost reduction and sales growth, can be expected if a product sales firm strategically approaches ICT-based servitisation to provide value creation to clients.