Aligning Product-Service Systems with Market Forces: A Theoretical Framework

The main purpose of the paper is to propose a theoretic framework aligning product-service systems (PSS) with market forces which manufacturing firms encounter, by which they can adopt the right PSS strategy to gain competitive advantage. The framework is presented based on literature review and multiple cases are then employed to verify the framework. It reveals that five different types of PSS (PPSS, SPSS, IPSS, APSS and RPSS) can be fit into four different market contexts that are conceptualized by market/technology turbulence and competitive intensity. Few previous research has taken market conditions and organizational factors into consideration when formulating the strategy of servitization. The paper fills in the gap by combining strategy with market environment. And also, it illuminates the future research direction in this area.