Versioning products and services by downsizing digital components: Risks due to consumers' feelings of unfairness

The inclusion of digital components in products and services, a characteristic of Industry 4.0, increases the possibility of adopting a versioning strategy by downsizing through the reduction or degradation of these components. In this study, we explore the perception of fairness of consumers who are already customers of a company regarding four different downsizing strategies in order to discuss means of identifying and avoiding those that are sources of feelings of unfairness. To address consumers' perception levels of fairness we worked with a scenario-based experiment approach, involving the analysis of different strategies of versioning through downsizing. The results indicate that the two downsizing strategies associated with degradation are sources of potential feelings of unfairness among consumers, implying a risk of the organization losing customers and revenue. From this observation, the difficulties of identifying and managing downsizing through degradation only from a technological perspective are discussed. Therefore, the study provides evidence of the importance of working on organizational behavior and culture to raise awareness in the areas involved in the development of products and services concerning the risks of downsizing through degradation.