Servitization in the B2B Manufacturing Context A Practice-Based Research Agenda

Servitization, intended as the transition from a product-centric to a service-centric business model, has been increasingly adopted by companies, particularly in manufacturing, where manufacturers can transform their offerings into integrated configurations of products and services, known as product-service systems. Even though ambitious service strategies can potentially offer the greatest opportunities, manufacturers often struggle in the transition towards servitization, encountering the servitization paradox. With the objective of supporting manufacturers in deploying servitization, this study aims to complement the existing theory-based research agendas with a practice-based one. Four Italian manufacturers were involved in this investigation, focusing on barriers, challenges, and themes of interest that they encountered while transitioning towards servitization. Based on a rationalization of the findings, the paper proposes a series of exemplary research questions based on the industrial perspective, which corroborate the existing state-of-the-art and can guide future researchers and practitioners in overcoming industrial challenges.