Service transition strategies of industrial manufacturers

Manufacturers are increasingly adopting service based strategies to maintain competitiveness in the face of commoditization, slower growth, and declining profitability in core product markets. The objective of this study is to explicate the transformation process towards services in more detail. We find that manufacturers develop product related services through a dedicated service division designed to exploit the commercial opportunities of servicing an installed base of equipment. At the same time, the strategy of integrated solutions is utilized to enhance the competitiveness of their core product offering under industry conditions which make it difficult to maintain competitive advantage purely through technological leadership. These logics are investigated through case studies of two industrial manufactures. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.