Technology Enterprise Business Models: A Handbook For The Post Pandemic Era

How to turn a traditional product into a service? How to equip the existing physical medium with differentiating features? Why do we need complementary services to an already seemingly efficient product? These and many more are the questions that concern the area of Technology-Service Management - the field, that primarily deals with the idea of developing and implementing technology for the sake of creating a service-shaped value out of it. In this chapter, we will become familiar with the ever-evolving definition of servitization and understand why innovative firms are interested in pursuing this strategy. Subsequently, the chapter will introduce two necessary frameworks for identifying the need for servitization - namely, the Gap Model of Service Quality and ServQual. Finally, we will explore three types of Product-Service Systems (PSS) through the case studies of the recent servitization trends.

In this Chapter, we will overview the cases of business innovation with a focus on servitization and digitization. The Chapter will introduce innovative initiatives in traditional markets, such as health and medicine-related, as well as manufacturing spheres. Lastly, we will become familiar with more unconventional pandemic-induced innovations within the clothing retail and fitness industries.

In this chapter, we will clarify the importance of the right service design for offline-online business models under PSS. The chapter will also overview the main principles of service design. Lastly, we will become familiar with specific frameworks for driving the workflow of creating a highly customer-oriented business model through the core ideas of service design. 

In this chapter, we will discuss the notion of value innovation and its importance for the PSS business models, while differentiating the areas of red and blue oceans heavily based on the winning idea of the Blue Ocean Strategy proposed by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in 2004. The chapter will also overview the main strategies for getting started with value innovation for firms through differentiation. Finally, the concept is to be put into practice through the review of case studies of firms and organisations that have engaged in value innovation through redefining market boundaries.

As demonstrated in Chapters 1-4, the notions of servitization and PSS are currently becoming the new normal for businesses all over the world, especially in the unfolded circumstances of the pandemic and the gradual transition to online digital space. To further aggregate the theoretical frameworks discussed, this chapter will introduce a number of relevant winning cases of the implementation of servitization and PSS models among the platform giants in travel and stay booking, e-commerce, car sharing, content, as well as health appliance and telemedicine industries.