Browsing by Person "Hepp, Michael"

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Erfolgsfaktoren zur Umsetzung der Transformation vom Produkthersteller zum Serviceanbieter
(2016) Hepp, Michael; Hadwich, Karsten
Throughout the last few decades many manufacturers of products have repositioned themselves strategically by moving from a product manufacturer to become a service provider. In the literature this is referred to “Servitization” or “Service Infusion”. Reasons for this is increasing competitive intensity in product manufacturing, corresponding with an erosion of product margins. Through Service Infusion, the product manufacturer can develop intimate relationships with its customer that results in a mutual dependency making the manufacturer less dependent on economic cycles. In addition, services usually have higher margins compared to products. This can result in a competitive advantage as well as higher entry barriers for the competitors. An increasing number of articles show the relevance of Service Infusion. Overall, however, the multitude of scientific papers have unfortunately not produced a common theoretical foundation or extensive empirical investigation. In addition, the integration of the customer as an external factor is a defined service as well, but is still insufficiently researched within the framework of the service infusion. So the thesis would like to answer the following three research issues: (1) What is a general theoretical framework for the service infusion? (2) What are the critical success factors for the transformation from a product manufacture to the product-oriented and system-solution-oriented business model? The overlapping success factors allows us conclusions for general success factors of the service infusion. (3) What is the role of customer integration in the transformation from the product manufacturer to the service provider and what is the ideal value of customer integration regarding to the specific business models? The thesis is structured in seven chapters: After the introduction, the second chapter describe the theoretical framework of the service infusion, the so-called business model approach of the service infusion. With a theoretical and deductive approach we structure ten development steps in four business models. For the validation we used case studies and a focus group discussion (n = 9) with experts. The third and fourth chapter show the implementation model of the product-oriented and system-solution-oriented business model. The EFQM Excellence model provides the theoretical framework. Through focus group discussions and a two-stage Delphi studies we confirmed for the product-oriented business model 29 (study 2, n = 11, study 3, n = 15) and the system-oriented business model 25, success factors (study 4, n = 11; study 5, n = 28). Chapter 5 shows success factors for the specific business models (product-oriented and system-solution-oriented business model), or general (fundamental) success factors of the service transformation. The sixth chapter describes the role of customer integration as part of the transformation process. The results shows, in relation to the different business models the collaborative role of the customers as an ideas supplier, a developer or a provider with different degrees of activities. These was also confirmed by a focus group discussion (6th study, n = 11). Finally Chapter 7 describes the limitation and conclusion of the thesis.