The New Role of Service for SMEs in Machinery Manufacturing Industries: a Case Study from China

The traditional roles of service have been mainly considered as financing, maintenance and customer service in manufacturing industries. Many crucial roles which the service plays are neglected when product and service are becoming more and more inseparable. This paper develops a concept model of service contribution from the perspective of product innovation for SMEs in machinery manufacturing industries and the concept model is based on three dimensions: user innovation in using, tacit knowledge accumulation and potential market. The empirical evidence shows that a case from China can be considered as an illustrative example of the above arguments. Indeed, service in this case acts as information collector for the product upgrading, bridge for learning from customer, and navigator for the future product innovation