Combined offerings of products and services (Product-Service Systems, PSS) are important in our day for several reasons: In an ever faster moving world, only selling a physical object is not enough anymore.
Imagine your smartphone without the app store. It would just be an empty shell, waiting to be filled. The same is true in the larger engineering companies that I focus on in my work. Logistics companies do not want to buy a forklift truck any more, they want to be sure that the truck is ready to go whenever needed, that there is the right number of trucks available at any time, that repair happens fast and without them noticing. Only companies that can provide these kinds of services can survive on the very competitive markets of today, and I want to support the companies I work with in mastering this challenge.
Tackling challenges, finding solutions
If we want to succeed in having a flourishing business world and maintaining our natural resources, we have to aim for a circular economy. Everyone consumer knows car sharing, but even companies are increasingly looking towards services to make their operations more effective. In my research, I aim to understand what makes companies succeed on this path we call ‘servitization’, and what challenges they meet along the way. Getting to grips with this is key, so that we as academics can recommend strategies for the design and operation of these product-service offerings that ensure they are good for the company providing them, for the customer buying them, and, at scale, for everyone on the planet.
Customer – Provider – Environment
Ensuring that all parties involved in a business transaction (Customer, Provider, and Environment) benefit from it is no easy feat. By working with large Swedish and international companies, I want to find out what makes them successful on their path towards becoming a service provider, and where they have room to improve, particularly when it comes to how they design and operate their product-service offerings. Of course, I also try to support their success by disseminating knowledge and identifying best practices. My ultimate measure of success would be, through my academic work and the work with industry, to contribute to us actually achieving a balance between service-customers, -providers and the environment that can support us towards a more sustainable future.
