Enhancing B2B sustainability through customer training in product-service systems: A design science approach

Products such as agrochemicals can create substantial sustainability risks if users lack sufficient knowledge to ensure their correct, safe use. Thus, education is a cornerstone of sustainable development. With a design science approach, the current research aims specifically to develop and test a tool, or artifact, that can help companies that sell potentially harmful products, such as agrochemicals, limit the risk of customers' unsustainable use of their products. The artifact that we propose is a problem-based training method that relies on social influence and that can be offered jointly with the product. Training customers to engage in more sustainable product use represents an added service that companies can integrate into product–service systems (PSS) to address their societal responsibilities. The literature has examined a number of tools that marketers can use to inform customers, but has neglected the role of firm-sponsored customer training to educate their customers. Using a field experiment with Brazilian coffee farmers and follow-up interviews and testimonies of stakeholders, we establish positive effects of our artifact; the benefits include enhanced knowledge of correct, safe uses of agrochemicals and farming practices among farmers and broader positive impacts on sustainability, for the benefit of all relevant stakeholders. • Potentially harmful products create sustainability risks if users lack knowledge to ensure their correct use. • With a design science approach, we develop and test an artifact to help companies limit the risk of unsustainable use. • The artifact is a problem-based training method relying on social influence that can be offered with the product in PSS. • The artifact is tested using a field experiment with Brazilian coffee farmers and follow-up interviews of stakeholders, • We establish positive effects of the developed artifact.