Service Business Development: Strategies for Value Creation in Manufacturing Firms

How can manufacturers of capital goods succeed in service business development? What are the potential network approaches for manufacturing companies planning on extending their service business? Over the last decade, the business environment of capital goods manufacturers has changed dramatically. Few capital goods manufacturers are able to outrun the competition with pure product-related technologies and innovation alone. For this reason they have added services to products as a way of responding to eroding margins and the loss of strategic differentiation through product innovation and technological superiority. Based on over twelve years of research, this book provides academics and business professionals with a thorough overview of the strategies available for value creation through service business development. It features case studies and covers a wide range of topics, including emerging issues such as service business in small and medium-sized companies, business innovation through services and the impact of rapidly growing Asian markets.

Thomas Fischer has been a research associate at the Institute of Technology Management at the University of St Gallen. His research interests lie in service business development, service innovation and the internationalization of the value chain in manufacturing companies. He completed his Ph.D. in 2010.

Heiko Gebauer is Associate Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) and at the Institute of Technology Management at the University of St Gallen. His research focuses on service and innovation management in infrastructure sectors, service business development in manufacturing companies and value creation in public transit services. He is also an adjunct professor at the Service Research Center at the Karlstad University in Sweden.

Elgar Fleisch is Professor of Technology Management and Director of the Institute of Technology Management at the University of St Gallen. He is also Professor of Information Management at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ). His research focuses on the economic impacts and infrastructures of ubiquitous computing. He is co-chair of research of Auto-ID Labs, co-founder of several university spin-offs and serves as a member of multiple management boards and academic steering committees.