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From Goods to Great: Navigating the Transition from Products to Services

Maly, Selina LU and Mørch Sørensen, Anna LU (2024) BUSN09 20241
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
This thesis contributes to the field of business model innovation and organizational change within
incumbent firms by applying a process-oriented approach to investigate servitization. In particular,
it seeks to improve understanding of the elements that influence this process, namely the use of
past learning, organizational culture, and organizational readiness within incumbent firms. These
topics guided the selection of theoretical concepts, which provided a lens through which the data
could be interpreted.
Therefore, an exploratory single-case study in the manufacturing industry was conducted. Given
the study’s qualitative approach, the empirical foundation consists of ten semi-structured
interviews with employees on management... (More)
This thesis contributes to the field of business model innovation and organizational change within
incumbent firms by applying a process-oriented approach to investigate servitization. In particular,
it seeks to improve understanding of the elements that influence this process, namely the use of
past learning, organizational culture, and organizational readiness within incumbent firms. These
topics guided the selection of theoretical concepts, which provided a lens through which the data
could be interpreted.
Therefore, an exploratory single-case study in the manufacturing industry was conducted. Given
the study’s qualitative approach, the empirical foundation consists of ten semi-structured
interviews with employees on management level in an incumbent product manufacturing firm. A
first round of exploratory interviews aimed to enrich the understanding of the different
perspectives on the introduction of servitization. Additionally, a subsequent round of interviews
covered the identified theoretical topics.
The analysis of the empirical data firstly revealed that product-based companies face significant
challenges in aligning on the definition and scope of services, which hinders the implementation
of servitization in their business models. Secondly, for incumbent firms, servitization inevitably
alters relationships within a firm's networks, necessitating activities focused on evaluating existing
partnerships and defining potential future collaborations. These findings add to prior research by
identifying that a main challenge hindering the transition into implementing services is the
achievement of organizational alignment, which is increasingly difficult for an incumbent product-
based company. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Maly, Selina LU and Mørch Sørensen, Anna LU
supervisor
organization
course
BUSN09 20241
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Business Models, Business Model Innovation, Servitization, Incumbency
language
English
id
9165804
date added to LUP
2024-06-26 12:39:57
date last changed
2024-06-26 12:39:57
@misc{9165804,
  abstract     = {{This thesis contributes to the field of business model innovation and organizational change within
incumbent firms by applying a process-oriented approach to investigate servitization. In particular,
it seeks to improve understanding of the elements that influence this process, namely the use of
past learning, organizational culture, and organizational readiness within incumbent firms. These
topics guided the selection of theoretical concepts, which provided a lens through which the data
could be interpreted.
Therefore, an exploratory single-case study in the manufacturing industry was conducted. Given
the study’s qualitative approach, the empirical foundation consists of ten semi-structured
interviews with employees on management level in an incumbent product manufacturing firm. A
first round of exploratory interviews aimed to enrich the understanding of the different
perspectives on the introduction of servitization. Additionally, a subsequent round of interviews
covered the identified theoretical topics.
The analysis of the empirical data firstly revealed that product-based companies face significant
challenges in aligning on the definition and scope of services, which hinders the implementation
of servitization in their business models. Secondly, for incumbent firms, servitization inevitably
alters relationships within a firm's networks, necessitating activities focused on evaluating existing
partnerships and defining potential future collaborations. These findings add to prior research by
identifying that a main challenge hindering the transition into implementing services is the
achievement of organizational alignment, which is increasingly difficult for an incumbent product-
based company.}},
  author       = {{Maly, Selina and Mørch Sørensen, Anna}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{From Goods to Great: Navigating the Transition from Products to Services}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}