Title: Barriers and conditions of open operation: a customer perspective on value co-creation for integrated product-service solutions

Authors: David Rönnberg Sjödin; Vinit Parida; John Lindström

Addresses: Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden ' Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden; Department of Networked Value Systems, University of Vaasa, 65101, Vaasa, Finland ' Department of Process IT, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden

Abstract: Enabling value co-creation between provider and customer is a key requirement for successful adoption of integrated product-service offerings in a capital good industrial setting. However, little is known about the barriers and conditions explaining customer's willingness to 'open up' their internal processes for value co-creation with providers. Based on a multiple exploratory case studies with four customers and four providers within the manufacturing and process industries, this study identifies three barriers to open operation (operational cultural resistance, loss of operational know-how and risk of operational conflict) which may restrict the potential for increased value co-creation and must be managed to support the adoption of integrated solutions. In addition, we identify two key conditions related to the criticality of the operational process and the state of operational competences as strong influences for which form of open operation engagement would be favoured by customer. The study holds both theoretical and practical implications.

Keywords: functional products; integrated solutions; open operation; product-service systems; PSS; service-dominant logic; value co-creation; servitisation; barriers; capital goods; process industry; manufacturing industry; cultural resistance; operational know-how; operational conflict; operational competences.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTMKT.2017.081505

International Journal of Technology Marketing, 2017 Vol.12 No.1, pp.90 - 111

Received: 06 Mar 2015
Accepted: 18 Jun 2016
Published online: 10 Jan 2017 *

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