Managing Cycles of Innovation Processes of Product-Service Systems

Innovation processes are subject to external and internal cycles. Changes in the business environment such as shifting market requirements, technological advances and macroeconomic cycles represent interdependent factors which have a significant influence on the innovation process. Furthermore there is a trend towards offering integrated products and services, so-called product-service systems (PSS). Due to more complex market offerings as well as a higher number of stakeholders involved in the innovation process, these cycles challenge especially companies providing PSS. A lack of knowledge and handling of these cycles and their dependencies and effects leads to problems. Analysing cycles integrates discipline-specific perspectives in innovation processes and takes changes inside and outside companies into account. The focus of this paper is on reoccurring patterns and their content-related and temporal dependencies for different disciplines in companies providing PSS.