Marko Bastl

State-of-the-art in product service-systems

Abstract A Product-Service System (PSS) is an integrated combination of products and services. This Western concept embraces a service-led competitive strategy, environmental sustainability, and the basis to differentiate from competitors who simply offer lower priced products. This paper aims to report the state-of-the-art of PSS research by presenting a clinical review of literature currently available on this topic. The literature is classified and the major outcomes of each study are addressed and analysed. On this basis, this paper defines the PSS concept, reports on its origin and features, gives examples of applications along with potential benefits and barriers to adoption, summarizes available tools and methodologies, and identifies future research challenges.

Challenges in transforming manufacturing organisations into product‐service providers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present challenges experienced by UK manufacturing companies undergoing a servitization journey to becoming product‐service providers.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an exploratory single‐case study approach based on semi‐structured interviews, and archival data. A total of 22 senior managers were interviewed from the product‐service provider and its two suppliers, resulting in more than 400 pages of interview data. Data were analysed through an inductive research analysis by an emergent identification of patterns.Findings – This research identifies critical and frequent challenges experienced by UK manufacturing companies undergoing a servitization journey to becoming product‐service system (PSS) providers. They are condensed into five pillars, which constitute the architecture of challenges in servitization. The architecture of challenges in servitization provides a full description of the strategy and operations of PSSs.Research limitations/implica...

Product Service Systems and Supply Network Relationships: An Exploratory Case Study

Purpose – In recent years there has been increasing interest in Product Service Systems (PSSs) as a business model for selling integrated product and service offerings. To date, there has been extensive research into the benefits of PSS to manufacturers and their customers, but there has been limited research into the effect of PSS on the upstream supply chain. This paper seeks to address this gap in the research.Design/methodology/approach – The research uses case‐based research which is appropriate for exploratory research of this type. In‐depth interviews were conducted with key personnel in a focal firm and two members of its supply chain, and the results were analysed to identify emergent themes.Findings – The research has identified differences in supplier behaviour dependent on their role in PSS delivery and their relationship with the PSS provider. In particular, it suggests that for a successful partnership it is important to align the objectives between PSS provider and suppliers.Originality/val...

Buyer-supplier relationships in a servitized environment : an examination with Cannon and Perreault's framework

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine a buyers adoption of servitization and the associated implications for the relationships with its suppliers.Design/methodology/approach – The authors use the case study approach to examine the tripartite relationship between a manufacturing company and two of its two suppliers. The paper explores the perspectives of employees on multiple organisational levels, and collects evidence on both sides of a relationship. The authors use template analysis utilising Cannon and Perreaults relationship connectors framework to analyse the data.Findings – There are overarching implications of servitization adoption for buyer‐supplier relationships. The implications are notable in all five relationship connectors. Parties expected more open exchange of information, operational linkages were strengthened and changes in the structural arrangements of relationships were witnessed. Legal contracts are complemented by relational norms. The authors also observed a departure...

An exploration of supply chain integration in the retail product returns process

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore supply chain integration (SCI) enabling practices, their benefits and barriers in a retail product returns process context. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts a case study research strategy. It draws on a single case, comprised of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and its two retailers. It utilizes an in-depth semi structured interviewing approach, combined with walk-through observations. Findings – The study finds that management of retail product returns can significantly benefit both an OEM and its customers when appropriate SCI enabling practices are deployed. While these practices are similar to those in forward supply chain processes, barriers are driven by the characteristics of product returns processes. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this study stem primarily from its methodological design. A single case research strategy provides a limited opportunity for external generalization of the resear...

Inter-organisational costing approaches - the inhibiting factors

– The purpose of this paper is to highlight the limitations of current accounting practices in an inter‐organisational context; introduce contemporary costing approaches used in inter‐organisational costing (IOC) programmes; and identify the inhibitors of successful implementation of IOC programmes., – The paper uses a structured review of empirical and theoretical literature., – Traditional accounting practices do not adequately fulfil their role in the inter‐organisational context. Contemporary accounting practices overcome only some limitations of traditional accounting practices. The paper uncovers part of the complexity surrounding the implementation of IOC programmes and suggests that we are dealing with a broad inter‐disciplinary phenomenon., – Conclusions are drawn on a conceptual level and further empirical investigation is encouraged., – The paper raises the awareness of the complexity surrounding the implementation of IOC programmes. The broad set of inhibiting factors could be effectively used by managers to assess the readiness of organisations involved in implementation of IOC programmes., – This research is the first that systematically addresses the problem of inhibitors in the implementation of IOC programmes. The broad scope of the paper sets the foundations for more focused research into specific inhibiting factors.

Towards the integrative supply chain model

Although empirical studies show that supply chain integration is associated with high levels of business and operational performance, some authors argue that there is no need to pursue total end-to-end supply chain integration and different or relationship-by-relationship approaches are needed. This paper introduces the first step in the development of the business process model, which might facilitate the building of closer relationships among businesses and therefore endorse supply chain integration. The aim of this paper is to determine whether there is some generic set of supply chain processes, which support material and information flows in a dyadic relationship. Through the literature review, two supply chain process frameworks (SCPFs), namely supply chain operations reference and global supply chain forum, have been identified together with nine evaluation criteria. Evaluation results provide evidence on the generic set of supply chain processes together with the insights into specific advantages and common shortcomings of these two widely recognised SCPFs.

Sustainability assessment of food chain logistics

Food chain logistics plays an important role in the sustainability performance of the food sector. Therefore, project SCALE (Step Change in Agri-food Logistics Ecosystems) started as a collaborative international project, aiming for tools and frameworks for the food sector to make a step change in operational practices. A sustainability framework is introduced to propose a structured and rational method for assessing sustainability. Next, we empirically apply the framework, based upon explorative web-based research and semi-structured interviews with the best practice players in the field in the Netherlands, the UK and France. Findings provide clear insights into the current state of the art regarding the use of sustainability performance indicators, companies’ sustainability strategies, supply chain redesign strategies currently applied in practice and experienced barriers to sustainability improvement. Overall, logistics service providers seem to have a wait-and-see attitude towards sustainability where food companies are more proactive following market demands for more sustainable products.

Strategic responses to power dominance in buyer-supplier relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the strategic options available to a weaker actor to counteract the dominance of a stronger actor in a buyer-supplier relationship, and identifies those factors that influence the choice of individual options. Design/methodology/approach – Following a systematic literature review methodology, a five-phase approach of planning, searching, screening, extraction and synthesis was rigorously employed. In total, 48 studies were used to draw conclusions about the phenomena of interest. Findings – Captured in an integrated conceptual framework, this study identified five strategic options available to the weaker actor in order to counteract a power dominance of a stronger player, which were underpinned by seven influencing factors. Research limitations/implications – The proposed conceptual framework requires first qualitative empirical validation using an abductive multi-case strategy, followed by a theory testing phase, employing a configurational approach. Pr...

Manufacturer-supplier relationships and service performance in service triads

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the manufacturer-supplier relationship in service performance within service triads. Design/methodology/approach An abductive case-research approach was adopted, using three embedded cases and 26 interviews in complex, multilevel manufacturer-supplier relationships within the same service network. Cannon and Perreault’s (1999) multidimensional relationship framework was deployed to achieve granular and nuanced insight. Findings This study corroborates the idea that relational relationships within service triads and servitization improve performance. The role of each relationship dimension in service performance is discerned and their interplay is captured in an analytic model. Information exchange, supplier relationship-specific adaptations, and the degree of formalization of the relationship directly influence performance, while cooperative norms and operational linkages are further back in the causal ordering. The study also highlights the importance of contingent factors (the size of the service site, the proportion of its revenues coming from service contract activities) and how they affect the relationship dimensions. Research limitations/implications The work was conducted in one network and the findings were generalized to theory rather than additional empirical settings. Originality/value This study is the first to derive a contextualized causal ordering of the Cannon and Perreault (1999) framework of relationship connectors and link it with service performance.