Managing Barriers with Product-Service Systems for Non-Assembled Products

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what barriers there are when it comes to developing PSS in the process industry for their non-assembled products, both from a provider and customer perspective. Additionally, the purpose is further to investigate how companies can manage these barriers. Method - This master thesis is an exploratory multiple case study with an abductive approach. In total, 25 qualitative interviews were made, with respondents from seven different companies, both companies within the process industry and companies who act as customers to the process industry. The interviews were made during two phases, the first phase was exploratory interviews and the second phase was semi-structured interviews, the collected data were later analyzed with a thematic analysis. Findings - The main findings from this study is divided in five overarching categories, three originating from the interviews provider perspective, and two from the customer perspective, within all overarching categories, barriers and possible ways to manage these are identified. The three provider categories are: Characteristics of the process industry, Market and customer awareness and Extensive transformation required. Additionally, the customers categories are Customers perspectives of servitization and Fundamental management activities. The barriers from these categories has been grouped in a framework after the two constraints time and difficulty. Theoretical implications - This study contribute to the current literature about PSS, which has a clear gap when it comes to PSS for non-assembled products. This study contributes in two ways: Firstly, the findings from this study suggest that some part of the literature about PSS for assembled products could be transferred to products that are non-assembled, above this, the findings also highlighting unique barriers with PSS for non-assembled products. Secondly, this study contribute with clarity about how different barriers should be managed, something that partly lacks in today's PSS literature. Practical implications - With this study, companies within the process industry are provided with support when it comes to investigating new business opportunities, if it is worth for the companies within the process industry to start working with PSS, or if it is not. This study has three important contributions for managers. Firstly, due to the unique characteristics of the process industry, it is suggested that managers broaden the perspective and look wider than just the core-process to find servitization-possibilities. Secondly, managers are provided with useful information regarding PSS which could make them more comfortable when deciding to work with servitization, or not. Thirdly, as the findings shows that the process industry has constrained resources, a framework is presented aiming to aid managers prioritize which barriers to manage. Research limitations - Due to the limited time for this master thesis, only companies within Sweden has been contacted, at each company, a maximum of two persons were contacted.