Exploring operational challenges for servitization: an European survey

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the priority of the management challenges managers and leaders in service businesses have faced during the servitization journey. The paper builds upon the work presented by West, Schmitt and Siepen (2014), West and Gaiardelli (2017) and West and Gaiardelli (2016). This is an initial study with the aim to identify some common themes and trends within the firms and highlight new areas for research. Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper is based on the results of a survey conducted with over 100 service managers across European industrial firms and supported with 20 interviews made previously by West and Gaiardelli (2016). Seven categories characterizing change management challenges in servitization were identified from the literature, and each category was associated with its specific challenges. Theoretical foundations were then used to support researchers to design the research sample and define the questionnaire’s structure, wording, and scaling. Findings: This paper provides insights into the challenges of implementing servitization strategy and prioritizes the key barriers that businesses are facing in their journey towards servitization. Originality/Value: This descriptive paper that provides a ranking of the most import barriers to servitization with insights from the 20 interviews and a survey with 111 responses