A maturity model for sustainable servitization in manufacturing

Despite increasing managerial interest, many firms struggle to scale sustainable servitization initiatives beyond pilot projects, facing capability misalignments, measurement challenges and governance complexities. This paper proposes a maturity model to assess and support manufacturing firms’ transition towards sustainable servitization. We structure and populate the model through a systematic literature review complemented by 19 interviews with managers, consultants and academics, and we subsequently test and deploy it in four companies. Our analysis shows that sustainable servitization is enabled by 11 capabilities, which we articulate into 62 items. These items populate 7 maturity dimensions and can be evaluated on five-level scales. The resulting model consolidates the fragmented sustainable servitization literature by identifying the capabilities that enable this transformation. In practice, it can be used to identify structured maturity profiles, support both internal analysis and cross-company benchmarking, guide targeted capability-development roadmaps and raise awareness of sustainable servitization opportunities, even in low-maturity contexts.