Traditional pipeline businesses based on linear value chains are increasingly giving way to digital platforms and new industrial ecosystems that foster collaborative value creation. Against this backdrop, three research questions are investigated:
- How can companies leverage the potential of data and digital platforms to capitalize on service innovation opportunities?
- What governance mechanisms are necessary to incentivize engagement and data sharing among industrial ecosystem actors?
- How can digital platforms and industrial ecosystems be orchestrated to ensure that value from new services is created for all actors?
Drawing on marketing, innovation, and information systems literatures, the research will be completed over four years in three overlapping stages. The research methods will shift from qualitative to quantitative as the focus moves from manufacturing firms to the industrial ecosystem and then to customer organizations.
Focusing specifically on business-to-business manufacturers—a key pillar of Swedish industry—this project will develop a theoretical framework for how data utilization can create more viable and sustainable industrial ecosystems for service innovation. It seeks to explain data-driven service transformation at both the firm and industrial ecosystem levels.
With its novel ecosystem approach, this project will contribute to academia by disentangling the effects of service innovation on performance outcomes and providing new insights into how data-driven service transformation can enable new business opportunities and viable ecosystems while driving sustainable development. Furthermore, it will contribute to practice by shedding light on the effects of digital service innovation on financial and customer metrics, offering actionable insights and best practices.
