Recongifuring assets for digital servitization : interplay and capability enhancing practices

Abstract

This paper investigates how manufacturing companies reconfigure their assets in their digital servitization journey (transition from selling products to selling product-service-software offerings). By studying five leading manufacturers for a longer time-period (2010-2018), we found that depending on their previous role of being whether system sellers or system integrators, their capability development practices differed: system sellers used practices emphasizing control (e.g., insourcing, acquisitions) whereas system integrators stressed practices that enabled flexibility (e.g., outsourcing, alliances). Based on these findings, manufacturers should establish their vision as provider of smart, connected solutions, and develop associated capabilities and practices that support this vision achievement.