Organizing the Development of Digital Product-Service Platforms

Abstract

Servitization is today a common theme among manufacturing companies, with the goal of better addressing the needs of their customers. Digitalization is one key enabler of servitization. One aspect of this concept can be provided through digital product-service platforms, which may facilitate the enrichment of a market offer, as well as keeping costs under control. Platforms are in general a well-established concept for manufacturing companies, as enablers of rich product offerings based on a few components. Less is known, however, about how the ambition to create digital product-service platforms interplays with the business model innovation needed as a result of the servitization efforts, along with processes and organization. This paper identifies a number of challenges that manufacturing companies may face when undertaking platform development for services, based on an empirical study made in the Swedish company Husqvarna Group.

Keywords

• business model innovation
• corporate entrepreneurship
• digital platforms
• servitization