Overcoming the challenges of change management associated with servitization: lessons from 20 practical cases

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to provide empirical examples from in depth interviews of how business leaders have overcome the barriers to servitization. This builds upon earlier studies by West and Gaiardelli (2017) and West et al. (2018). Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a prior survey as a starting point, 20 in-depth one-on-one interviews were carried out. The interviews used a semi-structured approach to identify the current practices used by firms to overcome the barriers to servitization. The results emerging from the interviews were organized according to the seven categories of servitization barriers defined by Hou & Neely (2013) and analyzed using a framework developed by Baines et al. (2016). Findings: The research underlines that the servitization process is not only a complicated cultural change process, but also rather resource and time intensive (West & Gaiardelli, 2017). While the major challenges that manufacturing firms face essentially fall into the seven categories defined by Hou & Neely (2013), unique challenges for each of the analyzed firms emerge in terms of internal approaches, external barriers and reactions to change management altogether. Originality/Value: This paper provides a full perspective on how servitization change management can be successfully achieved.