New business models for producers of capital goods and their organisational implications

The global market environment in the capital goods (CG) industry is characterized by a discontinuous turnover structure and shrinking margins. To meet these economic challenges many producers of capital goods opt for a strategic relocation along the value chain aiming at assuming more entrepreneurial responsibility. A possible path to pursue this strategy is the integration of business to business operator models into the product portfolio. From the point of view of CG producers, the propagation of these models poses two main research questions: 1. Which concrete possibilities exist in the broad field of business to business operator models? 2. What are the organizational consequences for companies adapting these models? This paper will address the first question by introducing a comprehensive typology of these business models which has been developed based on the analysis of case and market studies. Furthermore, the organisational implications of these business models for project-based organizations will be discussed.