The Road to Servitization: How Product Service Systems Can Disrupt Companies Business Models

The book describes state-of-the-art product service systems, and provides a framework to categorize the knowledge surrounding these systems. It discusses the evolution and spread of the servitization model across industries, and explores its current and most relevant applications in industry. Further, the book highlights the model’s strategic value for business and management, operations, and sustainability and shows readers how to enhance service design and implementation.

The contributors provide the theory behind servitization as well as the evidence for it, and report practical and industrial lessons learned. Illustrations, charts, and tables effectively guide readers through real-world and potential applications of product service systems, and case studies describing how companies have innovated and developed award winning business models are also included. Moreover, the book exhibits the selection and implementation policies for product service systems in different industrial environments.

Providing comprehensive information on the product service system phenomenon, this book is essential reading for researchers and practitioners in the product service and business industries. It is also of interest to students and lecturers in business strategy and service management, as it shows the latest trends shaping the modern contexts in which companies operate.

Alessandro Annarelli (PhD) is a Post-doc Researcher at Sapienza University of Rome. After receiving his Master Degree at the Sapienza University of Rome, he obtained a PhD in Sustainable Energy and Technologies at the Free University of Bolzano-Bozen (Italy). He has been a visiting PhD student at Luleå Tekniska Universitet (LTU) in Luleå, Sweden. His research interests are on innovation management, operations strategy and product-service systems. His main publications appeared in Omega – The International Journal of Management Science, and Journal of Cleaner Production.

Cinzia Battistella (PhD) is an Associate Professor of Innovation and Project Management at the University of Udine (Italy). She received her Doctoral degree at the University of Padua, and worked as a researcher and lecturer at the University of Udine, as an assistant professor at the Free University of Bolzano-Bozen and as an associate professor at the University of Siena. Her scientific interests are in the fields of innovation and strategic management, with focuses on the themes of foresight, business models and open innovation. Her papers have been published in Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, and the Journal of Technology Transfer. She is member of the editorial board of The Learning Organisation.

Fabio Nonino (PhD) is an Associate Professor of Business Management and Project Management at Sapienza University of Rome. His research activities are in the field of management, focusing on operations and service management, innovation management and organizational behaviour. He is author of the book “The Management of Additive Manufacturing - Enhancing Business Value” published by Springer and of papers in various leading journal, including Supply Chain Management: An international Journal, Production Planning & Control, Omega, International Journal of Production Research and Technological Forecasting and Social Change. He is co-editor of Cogent Business and Management and member of the editorial board of Kybernetes, the Journal of Global Information Management and the International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management.