DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND THEIR IMPACTS ON SERVITIZATION STRATEGIES

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to understand the role of digital technologies in the journey towards servitization of manufacturing firms. In particular, the paper addresses the following research questions: 1) which capabilities, among those enabled by the advent of digital technologies (hereafter, digital capabilities), are crucial to deliver product-service solutions? 2) how the advent of digital technologies such as IoT, cloud computing, predictive analytics, can affect and influence the servitization strategies of manufacturing firms? Design/Methodology/Approach: A literature review has been carried out in order to identify the capabilities enabled by digital technologies of interest of this paper, namely: IoT, cloud computing and predictive analytics. How these capabilities are linked to servitization strategies have been defined thanks to conceptual reasoning and authors’ experience from manifold collaborations with manufacturing companies undergoing servitization. Findings: Eleven digital capabilities have been identified with their importance in enabling servitization strategies and provisioning different product-service solutions. Originality/Value: This paper tries to fill the gap concerning the inadequate knowledge about the role of digital technologies in enabling the shift to service business of manufacturers.