How to create a service-oriented company when going through a technology shift

Abstract: Technical advancements and changes to the environment imply that industries may experience technology shifts. During those times, mature manufacturing companies are vulnerable, and it is of outmost importance they can respond to the new circumstances. To do so, mature manufacturing companies need to know which consequences they will experience to their offer, business model, resources and capabilities. Furthermore, it is increasingly popular for manufacturing companies to emphasize their service offers more, known as servitization. The purpose of the report was to describe and analyze a mature manufacturing company’s current offer and anticipate the consequences of a technology shift to the company’s future offer, business model, resources and capabilities. The report was conducted as a case study of Swedish truck manufacturer Scania and how they anticipate the consequences from electrification in the transport industry. To collect and analyze empirical data, a theoretical framework called the technology shift steering wheel was constructed which can be used to anticipate the consequences of a technology shift from the three perspectives in the purpose. Empirical data was primarily assembled through semi-structured interviews with knowledgeable interviewees from the case company, but also through an interview in the ecosystem and an archive review of both company and external resources. The report found that a technology shift in the company’s industry substitutes the core technology, and in response the company adopt a technology strategy to acquire, manage and exploit the new technology. They do, as a consequence, make changes to their business model to connect the new technological core to the customers’ needs. They must then construct an offer around the new core technology that embodies the value proposition. They will furthermore need to build or possess the necessary resources and capabilities to deliver the desired business model. The consequences are therefore implications of each other. By helping companies anticipate a technology shift’s consequences to their offer, business model, resources and capabilities, the technology shift steering wheel steer them through the ambiguous alleys of a technology shift.