Servitization in Electronics Manufacturing Firms : Applying and Evaluating the Integrative Product-Service System (PSS) approach

Abstract: The digital revolution has led to a drastic transformation of electronics manufacturing industries globally. A growing number of companies are continually investing in digital technologies to remain competitive. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Big data, Robotics, etc. and smart devices have been widely adopted to improve efficiency, connectivity, and productivity of businesses. To cope with increased competition and customer demands, electronics manufacturing companies have broadened their interest in service innovation. However, companies pursuing a servitization strategy often lack an established framework i.e. method and tools to design new services. Besides, research indicates that existing frameworks with the potential to support this development are not contextualized to the electronics manufacturing industry. This design study, therefore, evaluates and proposes how the Integrative PSS approach can be adapted to suit the electronics manufacturing context to support services. The findings suggest that some models used in this approach were found to be unfavorable in the development of services. In such cases, the study contributes by providing suggestions on what models to adapt and how in the integrative PSS approach to support electronic manufacturing companies in their servitization process. The artifact is an exaptation since a known solution is extended to solve a problem in a new context and of the type instantiation.