Analyzing commodities: Ambiguous differences between goods and services

Commodities are the goods and services that a company sells. The business literature makes a clear distinction between goods and services, based on intangibility, heterogeneity, simultaneous production and consumption, and imperishability of services. All businesses, however, seem to be service businesses to some extent. The objective of this paper is to find a new model to analyze different types of commodities. The bases of the new Commodity Characteristics Model (CCM) are the eight recognized characteristics of goods and services, combined with the phase structure of real-life processes. This model has the advantage of breaking free from prejudices concerning goods and services. OEM companies, for instance, are willing to become solution providers by developing new services, with a variety of opinions concerning what those services actually are. These new service activities could be analyzed by a comprehensive, yet interpretive, model, case by case.