Abstract
Digitization is receiving a lot of interest in recent servitization research, but the use of platform-based Industry 4.0 technologies to boost product-service innovation (PSI) is less covered. This study aims to explore how companies successfully leverage platforms for servitization in an Industry 4.0 context. Building on theories of PSI, platform leverage and business model adaptation (BMA), we use longitudinal and interpretive research methods to conduct an exploratory study of the servitization pathways of four Chinese textile and apparel manufacturing companies. Results reveal companies’ roadmaps in undertaking digital and smart servitization strategies enabled by platform leveraging, and show the implementation approaches for related BMA. Further analysis identifies platform-based servitization destinations and pathway dynamics. This study constructs a theoretical basis and a typology for explaining platform-based servitization.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 102222 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-21 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Technovation |
| Volume | 118 |
| Early online date | 21 Jan 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2022 |
Funding
The first author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the China Scholarship Council (Grant No. 201806630047 ) to pursue part of this study abroad. The second author is grateful for the financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71874152 , 71732008 , 71572187 ) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities during his time as postdoctoral researcher at the School of Management of Zhejiang University . The fourth author acknowledges the support of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (Grant No. 2016-XZ-17 ) to conduct in-depth interviews with the case companies.
Keywords
- Business model adaptation
- Digitization
- Platform leverage logics
- Product-service innovation
- Servitization
- Smartization