This study explores how a platform approach facilitates the implementation of advanced service offerings in manufacturing firms. Understanding servitization through a platform approach is important because many manufacturing firms fail to manage the service paradox, that is, the challenge of simultaneously enriching the value proposition by adding services while maintaining cost levels. This study focuses on how adopting a platform approach leverages the value of digital and information technologies (e.g., smart and connected machines) for advanced service offerings. It is argued that a platform approach based on a modular architecture can enable manufacturers to pursue both customization and operational efficiency. Based on multiple case studies, the findings highlight the importance of information modules replacing product and service modules as the core modules for successful servitization. More specifically, the findings illustrates the journeys of manufacturing firms as they leverage value from information modules to facilitate the orchestrating role of back-end units and the builder role of front-end units.

Equivocality, or divergent interpretations and understandings of tasks and knowledge, has negative effects on performance because it increases conflicts and creates communication and coordination challenges in inter-organizational innovation projects. However, equivocality may also stimulate team members to discuss beliefs and interpretations in ways that provide improved understanding of knowledge and tasks. We theorize that mitigation of negative effects of equivocality on project performance is conditional on explorative or exploitative knowledge search mode. Exploitative search (increasing search depth) allows for rapid learning based on the partners' existing knowledge, but it also limits a team's ability to interpret and combine diverse knowledge. Explorative search (increasing search breadth), on the other hand, allows for novel combinations of diverse knowledge and thereby alleviates the negative effect of equivocality on performance. Based on quantitative data from 251 respondents in 52 heavy-engineering innovation projects in four multinational corporations based in Sweden and from their 29 collaborating partner firms worldwide, we find that equivocality reduces project performance, but that joint explorative search mitigates the negative effect of equivocality on project performance. However, we do not find support for the moderation effect of exploitative search on the relationship between equivocality and project performance. Theoretical and managerial contributions as well as limitations and suggestions for future research are presented

As AI and ML technologies are increasingly incorporated into products, there is a need to understand the role of these incorporations in enhancing performance. This study uses new types of methodology related to textual data analysis to explore the question of whether there is a difference between market sentiments—and consequently marketing and business performance—when it comes to communicating either AI or ML. We test and confirm the hypothesis that AI rather than ML attracts more positive sentiments in the marketplace. Additionally, we find that AI is mostly used when the discussion centers on innovativeness, and that discussions concerning collaboration in these technologies attract more positive sentiments. We further contribute methodologically by leveraging textual data available online on the titles of web-page contents and the results of the Vader sentiment analysis to test our hypothesis. We conclude that, to enhance business performance, firms should communicate using AI-related vocabulary especially when the topic is innovativeness and collaboration.

Recent advances in AI algorithms and computational power have led to opportunities for new methods and tools. Particularly when it comes to detecting the current status of inter-industry technologies, the new tools can be of great assistance. This is important because the research focus has been on how firms generate value through managing their business models. However, further attention needs to be given to the external technological opportunities that also contribute to value creation in firms. We applied unsupervised machine learning techniques, particularly DBSCAN, in an attempt to generate a macro-level technological map. Our results show that AI and machine learning tools can indeed be used for these purposes, and DBSCAN is a potential algorithm. Further research is needed to improve the maps and to use the generated data to study related phenomena including entrepreneurship.

In open innovation processes, when partners actively transfer technology and knowledge across firm boundaries, effective and timely problem solving is the key to progress any given collaborative project. We propose that the problems a development team need to solve may be conceptualized as ambiguous, equivocal, uncertain or complex, or a combination of the four. By means of a multiple case study of new product and technology development at global manufacturing firms, we propose that efficient solution search is contingent on matching the nature of a problem with the appropriate solution search strategy. We identify four solution search strategies, so far tentatively referred to as: analytic search, interpretative search, restrictive search, and acquisition search. The article elaborates the key activities, effects and trade-offs of these strategies and provides managerial implications for improved problem solving in open and collaborative development.

Processutvecklingsprojekt mellan företag är ofta komplexa och riskfyllda, och resulterar inte sällan i oönskade projektavvikelser i tid, kostnad och kvalitet. Vår studie av 52 sådana projekt visar att tidig brukarinvolvering och gemensam problemlösning är nyckelaktiviteterna som möjliggör för medverkande parter att reducera osäkerhet och tvetydighet, och därmed skapar bättre förutsättningar för framgångsrika projekt.

Firms are increasingly relying on collaborating with external partners to drive technology development. Many firms struggle with managing the inherently uncertain and ambiguous technology development process, however, especially with external actors involved, because they may not have or share the same project management practices concerning coordination and control activities. To address this gap, this study examines appropriate project management practices for market- and science-partnerships in three large technology intensive firms. Our results suggest that interorganizational technology development is problematic because firms lack sufficient partner understanding and struggle with aligning their project management practices with those of their partners. To address these problems, we identify project management practices of coordination and control to fit the contingencies of each type of partner collaboration. Our results provide implications for theory and managerial practices related to managing interorganizational technology development.

Firms are increasingly reliant on collaborating with external partners to drive their technology development efforts in light of increasing pace of development and global competition. However, many firms struggle with managing the inherently uncertain and ambiguous process of technology development with external actors because these may not share the same technological understandings, processes and goals. Accordingly, we argue that further research is required to better understand the management of joint projects with different types of partners within technology development. To fill this gap this study examines the adaptation of traditional stage-gate processes for technology development projects with science-based and market-based partners in three large technologies oriented firms. Our results shows that open technology development projects are often problematic because firms lack partner understanding and have difficulty aligning their development processes with external partners. To address these problems we found that our firms adapted their processes by implementing externally oriented stages, gates and roles to suit the contingencies of collaboration with science-based and market-based partners respectively. Our results provide implications for theory and management practice concerning the management of open innovation and stage-gate processes.

This article investigates the vital and often underemphasized front end of innovation. It aims to explore how firms utilize organizational capabilities to manage multiple sources of fuzziness (uncertainty, equivocality, and complexity). In so doing, we use the capability- and knowledge-based view to examine the use of firms’ capabilities to navigate the front end process from vague ideas towards corroborated product definition. In our qualitative case of seven manufacturing firms, we explore practices, methods, and routines for managing the front end. We explain that new product ideas can be classified according to different degrees of fuzziness, which implies that not all product ideas can or should be treated in the same way. In fact, certain capabilities are more important for managing the development of ideas at low (i.e. process management and idea refinement) and high (problem formulation and problem solution) levels of fuzziness. Ultimately, we suggest a theoretical framework that elucidates how firms use two distinct paths (i.e. tolerance-based or reduction-based) to transform early new product ideas into corroborated product definitions. In doing so, our results guide project members in matching the magnitude of knowledge problems with organizational capabilities and thereby increase front-end performance.

Based on the results of a multiple case study of seven manufacturing firms, a contingency framework for harnessing fuzziness in the front end of innovation is proposed by delineating two discrete capability paths through which new product ideas are developed into corroborated product definitions. The study illustrates that ideas characterized by high levels of fuzziness benefit from following an exploratory path, where the creative potential of fuzziness is embraced by deploying problem-formulation and problem-solving capabilities. In contrast, ideas at low levels of fuzziness benefit from following an exploitative path, where fuzziness is tolerated by drawing upon idea-refinement and process-management capabilities. When the fuzziness level of the idea and the set of capabilities to develop the idea are poorly aligned, the idea-development process is either inefficient or runs the risk of stalling. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for the front end of innovation and new product idea development.

Purpose: Digital servitization provides new opportunities for manufacturers to compete acrossmultiple markets. However, global digital service provision is complex and knowledge intensive, as itrequires alignment with subsidiaries to ensure adaptation to local customers’ needs. The purpose ofthis study is to understand how manufacturers engaging in digital servitization can leverage reverseknowledge transfer (RKT) from subsidiaries to achieve global competitive advantages.

Design/Methodology/Approach: A qualitative multiple-case study including 43 interviews is used toinvestigate the RKT in three manufacturer-subsidiary cases taking place during the provision of digitalservitization solution packages in progressive global markets.

Findings: This study identifies three crucial types of subsidiary generated knowledge namely, digitalknowledge, customer knowledge, and needs analysis knowledge. Leveraging such knowledge,manufacturers are able to mitigate the operational challenges of global digital service provision, andrealise the benefits in the forms of financial performance, efficient rollout of the digital servitizationsolution, and the expansion of the digital service portfolio.

Originality/Value: Even though there has been increasing interest of scholars towards global digitalservice provision, there is limited knowledge about how manufacturers manage knowledge flowsbeyond the boundaries of a single market. This study extends current knowledge by focusing onmanufacturers’ digital service provision in multiple global markets. In addition, by focusing onsubsidiaries’ perspective, this study brings forward their critical role and impact on the achievementof global competitive advantages. This study introduces the concept of RKT in digital servitizationliterature exploring the role and impact of the subsidiary, actor that has received scant attention inthe servitization literature. 

As incumbents strive to collaborate with start-ups in the pursuit of cutting-edge digital solutions, the complexities posed by disparate partners and their innovative endeavours often lead to intricate tensions. Our research underscores the critical role of innovation intermediaries in enabling a successful digital co-creation, yet a deeper understanding of this novel and evolving context is required. Through a comprehensive study of two innovation intermediaries, five incumbent companies, and eleven start-ups, we shed light on how intermediaries can effectively mitigate the hard-to-manage tensions that emerge. Our analysis uncovers three primary tensions: incompatible digital co-creation cultures, divergent digital innovation operations, and misaligned technical capabilities. We further propose a four-phase process for innovation intermediation, including the establishment of digital co-creation foundations, catalysing digital innovation projects, orchestrating the co-creation process, and scaling the resulting outcomes.

This article explores how firms can benefit from opening up the new product development process by integrating the principles of open innovation with the Stage-Gate process. It examines the potential opportunities of employing the principles of both inbound and outbound open innovation within new product development at a firm in the upstream oil & gas industry. A practitioner-oriented work model, named the open Stage-Gate model, can exploit the advantages of "openness." This model allows explicit consideration of import and export of know-how and technology through gate evaluations and also enables firms to continuously assess their core capabilities and business model. The application of this model can assist firms in capturing value from both internal and external technology exploitation in increasingly open innovation processes.

This study explores how the evolution of digital platforms enable the growth of solution value space in manufacturing firms. Greater generativity of digital modules increases the value space and associated solution scope of the digital platforms. This study focuses on the evolution of digital platforms, that is, how design recombination of digital module units can facilitate manufacturers to deliver multiple advanced solutions through use recombination. Based on multiple case studies in the construction industry, the findings present the maturity model of three digital platforms for manufacturers: (1) connected product platform, (2) fleet management platform and (3) digital industrial platforms. First, connected product platform generates a service space from a single digital module as a value offer to customer. Second, fleet management platform leverages on assemblages of digital modules that enables multiple advanced solutions though use recombination. Finally, digital industrial platform extends the level of platform openness by promoting digital generativity to specialized complementors. Thus, study also sheds light on the generativity tension by helping firms to navigate the balance between promoting and constraining digital generativity.

Industrial manufacturers increasingly develop digital platforms in the business-to-business (B2B) context. This emergent form of digital platforms requires a profound yet little understood holistic perspective that encompasses the co-evolution of platform architecture, platform services, and platform governance. To address this research gap, our study examines multiple platform sponsors from an industrial manufacturing context. The study demarcates three platform archetypes: product platform, supply chain platform, and platform ecosystem. We argue that each platform archetype involves a gradual development of platform architecture, platform services, and platform governance, which mirror each other. We also find that each platform archetype is characterized by a specific innovation mechanism that contributes to the platform service discovery and expands the platform value. Our study extends the co-evolution perspective of platform ecosystem literature and digital servitization literature.

Digitalization is viewed as a source of future competitiveness due to its potential for unlocking new value-creation and revenue-generation opportunities. To profit from digitalization, providers and customers tend to move away from transactional product-centric model to relational service-oriented engagement. This relational transformation is brought about through digital servitization. However, current knowledge about how providers and customers transform their relationship to achieve benefits from digital servitization is lacking. This paper addresses that knowledge gap by applying the relational view theory to a study of four provider-customer relationships engaged in digital servitization. The results provide evidence for four relational components – complementary digitalization capabilities, relation-specific digital assets, digitally enabled knowledge-sharing routines, and partnership governance – that enable providers and customers to profit from digital servitization. A key contribution is the development of a relational transformation framework for digital servitization that provides an overview of how the four relational components evolve as the relationship progresses. In doing so, we contribute to the emerging servitization literature by offering key relational insights into the interdependence of activities throughout the transformation phases of provider-customer relationships in digital servitization.

To profit from digitalization, industrial relationships shift from transactional product-centric model to relational service-oriented engagement – a trend that is referred to as digital servitization. To transform their relationships, providers and customers should consider four relational components: complementary digitalization capabilities, relation-specific digital assets, digitally enabled knowledge-sharing routines, and partnership governance. This article offers guidance and presents a relational transformation framework for digital servitization.

Digitalization offers new opportunities for equipment suppliers to support the competitiveness of process industry firms through participating in digitally enabled process-innovation initiatives. However, doing so is not without challenges as it requires equipment suppliers to align with multiple actors within an extended ecosystem to deliver complex product-service software systems as embodied sources of process innovation. This creates various challenges for the equipment supplier because it has to secure its role in an ecosystem where it must simultaneously cooperate and compete with other ecosystem actors. Therefore, it needs to consciously determine what ecosystem strategy to apply. Using multiple exploratory case studies, we investigate how equipment suppliers configure appropriate ecosystem strategies to realize digitally enabled process innovation for process industry firms. Our findings emphasize that different industrial customer contexts require different ecosystem strategies; we have identified four archetypical ecosystem strategies (orchestrator, dominator, complementor, and protector). The core insights from our research are converted into a decision tree framework to guide equipment suppliers in configuring the appropriate ecosystem strategy based on the industrial customer context. Key contingency considerations include determining an appropriate role in the ecosystem (leader or follower) and a suitable coopetitive approach (cooperation dominated or competition dominated).

Digitalization or industry 4.0 holds the potential of providing many benefits to industrial companies. Industrial customers are increasingly focusing on buying digitally enabled advanced services, i.e. integrated solutions that combine products and service functions with digital capabilities. However, traditional procurement processes are not well designed for evaluating and buying digitally enabled advanced services, which inhibits value co-creation between the supplier and customer. Therefore, industrial customers need to transform their procurement processes in order to improve the potential of profiting from digitalization. We use data gathered from multiple case study of 8 large companies in Sweden to develop a procurement process for digitally enabled advanced services. The proposed process consists of 4 phases with key activities at each phase. These are based on a close interaction between the internal actors of customer organization, as well as co-creation logic between customer and supplier, leading to a win-win relationship and continuous innovation.

Providers are increasingly leveraging digitalization and offering their industrial customers more advanced services which are enabled by digital technologies such as the internet of things, remote monitoring, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence. This trend is referred to as digital servitization, and it is enabling significant changes in how value is created and captured in industrial relationships. In order to fully benefit from digital servitization, providers and customers need to transform their relationships. However, there is limited knowledge on how a provider and a customer govern their dyad relationship in the context of digital servitization. To address this gap, this paper applies the relational view theory as a lens for the purpose of studying how dyad relationships in digital servitization can be successfully governed by parties involved. To that end, research was conducted based on multiple case study of four dyad relationships between Swedish providers and customers that are actively involved in digital servitization. In total, 40 respondents from seven companies were interviewed, and data was analyzed based on thematic analysis approach to identify relevant themes and patterns. Although data collection followed an inductive approach, data aligned with the four determinants of interogranizational competitive advantage suggested by the relational view: complementary resources and capabilities, relation-specific assets, knowledge-sharing routines, and effective governance. The results of this study demonstrate that these determinants have great influence for governing relationships between the provider and customer in digital servitization. This paper provides theoretical contribution to servitization literature by highlighting the importance of relationship governance, and how this is gradually transformed as the relationship develops. This transformation is illustrated in a stepwise framework that can also guide managers in prioritizing activities and investments, and developing governance mechanisms to advance their business relationships in digital servitization context.

In the light of industry 4.0, providers are increasingly offering their industrial customers more advanced services enabled by digital technologies such as the internet of things, remote monitoring, and artificial intelligence. This trend is referred to as digital servitization, and it is enabling significant changes in how value is created and captured in industrial relationships. In order to fully benefit from digital servitization, providers and customers need to transform their relationships. However, there is limited knowledge on how a provider and a customer govern their relationship in the context of digital servitization. To address this gap, this paper applies the relational view theory as a lens for studying how dyad relationships in digital servitization can be successfully governed and transformed. To that end, research was conducted based on multiple case study of four dyadic relationships between providers and customers. In total, 40 respondents from both sides were interviewed, and data was analyzed based on thematic analysis approach to identify relevant themes and patterns. The results identify four components – complementary digitalization capabilities, relation-specific digital assets, digitally enabled knowledge-sharing routines, and partnership governance – that enable providers and customers to profit from digital servitization. The main contribution is the development of a relational governance framework for digital servitization. In doing so, we provide contribute to the servitization literature, as we advance understanding of the central role of relationship governance in digital servitization, and provide insights into the transformation of provider-customer relationships.

This study intends to unpack the interaction effect between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and absorptive capacity (ACAP) by analyzing the organizational micropractices of six highly profitable companies to identify three practices and nine micropractices that drive the positive profit outcomes from EO and ACAP. To identify 6 cases, the present study used K-means cluster analysis with a generalizable quantitative dataset in which the interaction between EO and ACAP was found to be associated with high profitability. The 6 cases were selected to unpack the interaction between EO and ACAP to capture this interaction at the microlevel. For this task, we used 31 interviews and practice theory as theoretico-methological perspective. The study contributes by identifying three practices – namely, (1) proactive idea generation, (2) value-driven product development, and (3) market-driven product commercialization – and nine micropractices. These practices shape what we define as strategic agility in innovation.

The present study extends the discussion on product manufacturers' digital servitization toward smart solutions by outlining and reviewing the existing literature on digital servitization and smart solutions. We focus on potential configurations based on technologies, business models, and ecosystems to understand how this transition can be managed through the process of reconfiguration. We define smart solutions as an advanced state of product-service-software systems, and we use moving vehicles as a case in point. We base our discussion on a configurational research approach, examining the role of advanced technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence), novel business models, and modern ecosystems (e.g., platforms and innovation ecosystems) in shaping digital servitization toward smart and autonomous solutions. We identify gaps in the literature, offer an analytical framework, suggest avenues for future research, and contribute by laying the theoretical foundations and proposing managerial directions for a digital servitization journey toward smart solutions. By so doing, we present the papers accepted to the current IMM special issue on “Moving toward autonomous solutions: The role of Product-Service-Software Systems”, which this review article introduces.

Manufacturing firms are increasingly seeking to capture the potential of digitalization by transforming towards digital servitization. Yet, most manufacturers struggle to realize the value through digital servitization because it requires a sustained focus on forming ecosystem partnerships. Digital servitization research has long recognized the importance of ecosystem tranformation but much of the existing discussion on this interlink is fragmented and understudied. Therefore, this study’s purpose is to investigate how manufacturing firms engaged in digital servitization transform their ecosystems. To this end, we have examined the triggers, firm-level enablers, ecosystem phases and activities, and effects of ecosystem transformation in digital servitization. We provide a comprehensive review of the phases of ecosystem transformation including ecosystem formation, orchestration, and expansion as well as their associated activities. These findings have been consolidated into an integrative framework for ecosystem transformation and, based on this analysis, suggestions for future research are provided for digital servitization scholars.

Manufacturing companies are introducing innovative ways to facilitate the sustainable transition of their customers’ operations. The emerging literature on digital servitization proposes numerous factors, such as the use of advanced artificial intelligence analytics, orientation toward outcomes, and aligning ecosystem partnerships, which can potentially influence the sustainable performance of industrial customers. However, there is currently a lack of understanding regarding how these factors interact to result in sustainable outcomes. Hence, this study seeks to shed light on these complex relationships by identifying viable smart solution strategy configurations for achieving customer sustainable performance. Drawing on a dataset of 180 Swedish manufacturing firms, this study uses a configurational comparative method—namely, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis—to identify the impact of different configurations of “AI-driven optimization,” “outcome orientation,” “value co-creation,” and “ecosystem orchestration” conditions on the realization of customer sustainable performance. This study has identified five smart solution strategies that empower manufacturers to realize sustainable performance for their customers. Among the five configurational strategies identified, the first configurational strategy appears to be the most prominent, as it is based on an outcome-based approach in which the firm uses its technological expertise and its ecosystem partnerships to take over customer operations. Thus, this study contributes to the ongoing discussion in digital servitization on its enabling role for industrial sustainability practices.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand how digital servitization enables the process of internationalization for industrial SMEs.

Design/methodology/approach: The present study has adopted an exploratory multiple case study, conducting a total of 40 interviews in a two-phased approach to data collection. The first phase consisted of exploratory interviews with twenty-six industrial SMEs connected to the manufacturing industry in Sweden and Finland. Then, six SMEs were selected in the second phase to participate in additional in-depth interviews.

Findings: First, this study identifies three gradual enabling phases concerned with the digital service maturity of SMEs consisting of digital awareness, digital service innovation and digital service mass customization. Second, the three interdependent phases of ecosystem knowledge synergy, ecosystem integration and ecosystem value co-creation were identified to improve ecosystem involvement. Finally, a process framework has been developed for SME internationalization consisting of a digital servitization innovation strategy, a digital servitization ecosystem strategy and a digital servitization scaling strategy.

Originality/value: The present research contributes to how digital servitization enables SME internationalization by demonstrating how the development of digital service offerings and ecosystem partnerships supports the internationalization process. This research extends the literature by proposing a process framework for the digital-servitization-enabled internationalization of SMEs. This process perspective provides a richer explanation of the complex interplay between servitization, digitalization and ecosystems choices, which supports the expansion into international markets.

Purpose: Digital servitization has shown to create a competitive advantage for manufacturing companies on the international market. However, companies, specifically SMEs, are struggling to make use of its benefits for their international activity. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how SMEs utilize digital servitization for their internationalization strategy by developing their ecosystem capabilities.

Design/Methodology/Approach: To achieve this purpose, this study has adopted an exploratory multiple case-study approach and conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 manufacturing SMEs.

Findings: In this study, a framework has been developed for SMEs to enable their international activities by strengthening their digital servitization capabilities, which include digital awareness, digital service innovation, and digital service customization. Ecosystem capabilities, including ecosystem knowledge synergy, ecosystem innovation appropriability, and ecosystem alignment, have been identified as the deciding factor for the successful adoption of internationalization strategies.

Originality/Value: Despite its potential, the implementation of digital servitization is still challenging for most of the manufacturing companies, especially SMEs that target international markets. These companies are dependent on ecosystems in the international atmosphere, but the capabilities needed to succeed requires further research. In this regard, the framework presented in this study helps SMEs to develop ecosystem capabilities for digital servitization in the international arena.

“Fail fast and learn fast” is a principle commonly advanced to quickly grow and scale startups and SMEs. However, the literature lacks detailed insights into how such learning is organized. The paper aims to investigate how knowledge-intensive SMEs learn from failures through organizational learning processes. To answer this question, we present in-depth case studies of three SMEs that operate in a dynamic context where quick adaption to changes, failures, and learning are natural modes of practice. Our findings present the learning from the failure process, which includes three phases: (1) failure recognition, (2) interactive sensemaking, and (3) organizational adaptation. We condense our insights into a framework disentangling how SMEs succeed and fail and how they can learn from failures through their underlying learning processes. We contribute to prior literature on organizational learning in SMEs by focusing on knowledge-intensive SMEs and practices that enable effective learning from failures.

By entering outcome-based service (OBS) relationships, industrial service providers and their customers realign their business interests to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. The move towards OBS represents a shift from transactional to relational interaction between the providers and their customers. Thus, the changed relationship is bound to envelop paradoxes – circumstances that involve competing demands where making tradeoffs can often be impossible. The purpose of this study is to explore such relational paradoxes in OBS relationships and how providers cope with them. An explorative case study approach reveals that the relational paradoxes are related to control, knowledge, dependency, and complexity. Subsequently, we developed a COPE framework consisting of four provider coping strategies: commitment, openness, partnerships, and extrication. Building on the logic of knotted paradoxes, we introduce a quatrefoil knot in which the found relational paradoxes are enmeshed. Finally, we show how different paradoxical tensions become salient at different phases of the OBS relationship while being reinforced by the latent paradoxes at the time. For managers, we disclose relational tensions and their temporal interplay and suggest strategies to cope with them.

This publication ‘Process-SME Project – Exceeded Expectations’ introduces a Nordic project Process-SME, which main objective is to improve the competitiveness of SMEs whose customers are found within the process, mining, energy, oil, and gas industries. The project supports these SMEs by identifying their needs and potential opportunities, developing new business models, building European partnerships and applying for EU-level funding for project proposals on SMEs’ business behalf. Furthermore, the Process-SME project aims to develop SMEs’ products, services and other offerings.

Servitization research has principally focused on the transition of organizational-level strategy, systems, capabilities, and processes for firms to be able to offer advanced services to their customers. Less is known of the underlying microfoundational dynamics of such transitions at the individual-level. Based on a multiple case study of six large multinational industrial firms engaged in servitization efforts, this paper identifies the tactics (i.e., evangelizing, bootlegging, leveraging, and collaborating) that individuals adopt to overcome organizational resistance to servitization. This study also presents the conditions that are necessary for individual employees to adopt these tactics. The present study provides theoretical and practical implications of the microfoundations of servitization, focusing attention on individual-level actions that affect the outcomes at the organizational-level to drive servitization efforts.

Purpose

The dominant-view within servitization literature presupposes a progressive transition from product to service orientation. In reality, however, many manufacturing firms maintain both product and service orientations throughout their servitization journey. Using the theoretical lens of organizational ambivalence, the purpose of this paper is to explore the triggers, manifestation and consequences of these conflicting orientations.

Design/methodology/approach

A multiple case study method was used to analyze five large manufacturing firms that were engaged in servitization. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 respondents across different functions within these firms.

Findings

Servitizing firms experience organizational ambivalence during servitization because of co-existing product and service orientations. This paper provides a framework that identifies the triggers of this ambivalence, its multi-level manifestation and its consequences. These provide implications for explaining why firms struggle to implement servitization strategies due to co-existing product and services orientations. Understanding organizational ambivalence, provides opportunity to manage related challenges and can be vital to successful servitization.

Originality/value

Considering the theoretical concept of ambivalence could advance the understanding of the effects and implications of conflicting orientations during servitization in manufacturing firms.

Recent trends in manufacturing industries, is the movement of firms towards providing industrial services or product-service systems (PSS). Importance of this phenomenon has been acknowledged as imperative for strategic differentiation, maintaining competitiveness, increase profitability and be environmentally sustainable. Although a lot of studies have focussed on the benefits of PSS provision, yet very less is know about the challenges of such transition, especially at the functional unit level within an organsiation. Our study focusses on the R&D unit and the various role conflicts that emerges as the function of the unit moves from being based on legal structure to that based on collegial authotiry in the PSS transtion process. In a cross-case analysis of large manufacturing comapanies involved in PSS transition, we identified how role conflicts occur at the organisation, unit and intra-unit levels. Our findings contribute to role conflcit literature and in the context of PSS and R&D units. We also observe that role conflict operates not just at the individual member level but at various levels within the orgasniation and the R&D unit, which has not been observed previously. We contribute by showing that an understanding of these challenges can be the differentiating factor for successful implementation and managing transtition towards PSS that have been previously negelected in PSS and R&D literature as well.

Recent trends in manufacturing industries, is the movement of firms towards providing industrial services or product-service systems (PSS). Importance of this phenomenon has been acknowledged as imperative for strategic differentiation, maintaining competitiveness, increase profitability and be environmentally sustainable. Although a lot of studies have focussed on the benefits of PSS provision, yet very less is know about the challenges of such transition, especially at the functional unit level within an organsiation. Our study focusses on the R&D unit and the various role conflicts that emerges as the function of the unit moves from being based on legal structure to that based on collegial authotiry in the PSS transition process. In a cross-case analysis of large manufacturing companies involved in PSS transition, we identified how role conflicts occur at the organisation, unit and intra-unit levels. Our findings contribute to role conflict literature and in the context of PSS and R&D units. We also observe that role conflict operates not just at the individual member level but at various levels within the organisation and the R&D unit, which has not been observed previously. We contribute by showing that an understanding of these challenges can be the differentiating factor for successful implementation and managing transition towards PSS that have been previously neglected in PSS and R&D literature as well.

Online retail platforms face significant challenges, including intense competition, the chicken-or-egg dilemma in acquiring consumers and sellers for network effects, and establishing sustainable growth models. This article addresses these challenges by focusing on the concept of ‘generativity’—a platform’s ability to expand product and ecosystem boundaries, thereby unlocking potential economies of scale and scope. Drawing on experiences from both small and large online retail platforms, we outline an extended set of strategic actions to foster generativity by engaging consumers (e.g., facilitating consumer creativity), complementors (e.g., creating open marketplaces), and their cross-sided interactions (e.g., extending interaction along consumer journeys). For each strategy, we provide practical, actionable recommendations that platform owners can implement to expand their product offerings and add new functions and services to improve interactions between participants. By emphasizing the importance of integrating the contributions of both consumers and complementors, these strategies foster a dynamic and innovative platform ecosystem, crucial for the sustained growth and competitiveness of online retailers.

In the era of digitalization, manufacturing firms find it difficult to assess what is “the right” digital business model. To avoid common digitalization traps, company leaders and managers need to carefully assess each business model opportunity before committing to implementation and commercialization. We present insights from our case study about the diverse and complex issues related to digital business models. We highlight three digitalization traps and provide a three-phase framework companies can use to evaluate digital business model opportunities and make an informed decision on the commercial prospects for each model vetted.

Firms are faced with increased dynamism due to rapid technological development, digitalization, and sustainability requirements, creating novel opportunities for ecosystem innovation. This is particularly prevalent in smart city contexts where initiatives concerning, for example, energy efficient buildings and smart energy grids drive new kinds of ecosystem formation. Orchestrating emerging innovation ecosystems can offer a path to sustained competitive advantage for ecosystem leaders. Yet, it calls for the development of new capabilities to sense, seize, and reconfigure digitalization opportunities in a highly dynamic ecosystem environment. Yet, prior research lacks insights into the dynamic capabilities and routines required for ecosystem innovation. Therefore, this study investigates how firms can develop dynamic capabilities to orchestrate ecosystem innovation and, thus, gain from it. Through a multiple case study of smart city initiatives, we offer insights into the specific micro-foundations or sub-routines underlying the ecosystem leader's sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring capabilities, which are necessary to orchestrate ecosystem innovation. We develop a capability-based framework demonstrating three orchestration mechanisms – namely, configuring ecosystem partnerships, value proposition deployment, and governing ecosystem alignment. Our findings carry implications for the literature on innovation ecosystems and dynamic capabilities, as well as for managers.

This is an updated version of the ProcessIT. EU roadmap for industrial process automation, which was initially released in 2013 to provide guidance and input for process industry companies, providers of process industrial IT- and automation solutions, researchers as well as policy makers and bodies/initiatives that craft calls for RDI-projects. The main objective is for European process industry to stay competitive, profitable and sustainable. Thus, to support European process industry in its industrial process automation endeavours, the ProcessIT. EU roadmap outlines three top-level needs: sustainable production, competence management and trust, security, safety and privacy. These three top-level needs intersect the following ten R&D areas:

• Productivity, efficiency, scalability and flexibility

• Sustainability through circular economy - circular economy through industrial internet

• Distributed production/modular factories and services

• Artificial Intelligence and Big Data

• Autonomous plants and remote operations

• Platform economy

• Cybersecurity

• Safety - human, machine and environment

• Competences and quality of work

• Human-Machine Interfaces and Machine- to-Machine communications,

which in turn are used as building blocks in the nine gamechangers . The gamechangers aim to influence the process industries’ competitiveness, profitability and sustainability . The gamechangers are listed below:

• Modular factory for distributed and automated production

• Live virtual twins of raw-materials, process and products

• Increased information transparency between field and ERP

• Real-time data analytics

• Dynamic control and optimisation of output tolerances

• Process industry as an integrated and agile part of the energy system

• Management of critical knowledge

• Semi-autonomous automation engineering

• Integrated operational and cybersecurity management

Finally, the ProcessIT. EU roadmap provides an insight into what may need to be considered on strategic and tactical levels, in terms of: objec-tives, R&D areas, game changers and business modelling, to keep and develop the competitive edge and initiative.

The paper addresses which customer values, related to sustainable management of operation for Functional Products, are of interest during manufacturing companies’ marketing and sales processes. Based on an empirical study covering five manufacturing companies, a set of customer values, which are categorized using Hill's [28] framework in order to understand whether they are important and why,is proposed. The analysis has generated a set of twenty-three potential values, whereof nine are considered as specific for contexts embodying Functional Products.Thus, the findings identify critical values to considerprior to, andwhen, selling Functional Products. Further, the results have important implications for the design and development of Functional Products in light of ongoing transformations within the manufacturing industry

Rapid digitalization of industries has led to the proliferation of complex industrial digital platforms; however, few industrial platform leaders have successfully established sustainable business models around their offerings. The need for a concrete definition of industrial digital platforms and their business models further complicates our understanding of the issue. In this prospecting review, we critically analyze the existing literature on industrial digital platforms to identify key research themes and research gaps and propose a future research agenda for the industrial digital platform literature from a business model perspective. Drawing on insights from research on industrial platforms, digitalization, digital servitization, and business-to-business (B2B) relationships, our analysis focuses on three key themes in defining the boundaries of industrial digital platforms and the crucial aspects of value creation, value delivery, and value capture on such platforms: (a) co-creative value creation, (b) digitally integrated value delivery, and (c) mutual value capture. The findings of this study and a future research agenda framework provide a roadmap for advancing the understanding of business models for industrial digital platforms. This research aims to contribute to the emerging field of industrial digital platforms and guide future research endeavors in this domain, unlocking the full potential of these platforms for businesses and industries.

This study explores the interlink between AI capabilities and circular business models (CBMs) through a literature review. Extant literature reveals that AI can act as efficiency catalyst, empowering firms to implement CBM. However, the journey to harness AI for CBM is fraught with challenges as firms grapple with the lack of sophisticated processes and routines to tap into AI's potential. The fragmented literature leaves a void in understanding the barriers and development pathways for AI capabilities in CBM contexts. Bridging this gap, adopting a capabilities perspective, this review intricately brings together four pivotal capabilities: integrated intelligence capability, process automation and augmentation capability, AI infrastructure and platform capability, and ecosystem orchestration capability as drivers of AI-enabled CBM. These capabilities are vital to navigating the multi-level barriers to utilizing AI for CBM. The key contribution of the study is the synthesis of an AI-enabled CBM framework, which not only summarizes the results but also sets the stage for future explorations in this dynamic field.