What KPIs are fundamental for the business model “Equipment-as-a-Service” at one of Sweden's largest automotive manufacturers?

Abstract: Background: The business model “As-a-Service” is fairly new and has gained attention in connection with the importance of creating a circular economy. The business model has a new way of creating revenue which makes it of value to apply useful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in order to remain profitable. Nor the literature or the market has established a set of KPIs and it is therefore that it can be argued for a need to investigate this in order to make the business model successful in the long run. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate how fundamentals are reflected in KPIs in the business model “Equipment-as-a-Service”. Method: The thesis is conducted through a qualitative approach with a core example company that exemplifies the usage of the business model EaaS within the automotive industry. The empirical evidence was gathered through literature review of earlier research combined with qualitative semi-structured interviews with respondents from the core example firm and external sources such as an accountant and an auditor. Conclusion: The analysis uncovered that there are four KPIs that can be of relevance to apply within this business model. These KPIs already exist today but in order to be implemented more internal work needs to be performed within the core example company. Some differences between internal and external experts’ viewpoints on which KPIs could be useful was arised and discussed.