Business Model of Data-Enabled Industrial Services
Hiipakka, Annika (2023)
2023
Tuotantotalouden DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Industrial Engineering and Management
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-09-26
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202309208327
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202309208327
Tiivistelmä
This is a master’s thesis that studies the business model of digital services in a manufacturing case company. The problem for this thesis comes from the case company’s need to create a business model for their new digital service offering. The research objectives are thus to find the business model literary review and empirical research. This thesis also intends to contribute to the literature about digital industrial services business models. The research questions are: what value do customers expect from the new services in the industry and what kind of changes does the company have to make in order to deliver the services?
The value creation literature emphasizes the importance of knowing how consumers evaluate value, the significance of digital technology, the digital transformation enabling smart services, and the necessity of demonstrating the worth of smart services. What is found from delivery logic literature is the need to align a company’s operations strategy and service delivery, acknowledgment of employees’ role in building the delivery, and important organizational decisions. Successful service providers motivate staff, create effective procedures, and implement organizational changes. Research gaps found were customer perspective or expectations for value and how to create value in smart services, organizational change in servitization, and changes needed to achieve customer interaction and continuous customer information flow.
The chosen research philosophy is pragmatism, theory development approach abduction, methodology a mono method qualitative study, research strategy an orthodox and embedded single case study and time horizon cross-sectional. The data collection method is a semi-structured interview and data analysis method thematic analysis.
Value logic results include the current diverging views of current value, the importance of identifying the changing value inside the customer organization, the need to invest in future value, working closer with the customer to understand them, sharpening up case company processes, and taking advantage of company’s skills to capture future value and paying more attention to value communication. Delivery logic brings up the lack of a clear delivery process and problems in information flow, the need to train employees on the connectivity widely in the company, favoring of clarification of responsibilities and defining process instead of major organizational changes, the lack of standard customer communication procedure during delivery and the additional human resources needed to solve the previous problem.
The results are discussed and compared to the literature results. From these discussions, twelve recommendations are listed as the answer to the research questions. The recommendations concern the full potential value of current services, perceived customer value, investments for future value, and ways of achieving customer-driven future value. Improvements in customer communication concerning both value creation and delivery process are suggested. Other recommendations about delivery logic include presenting issues in the current delivery process, suggestions to solve them, and changes inside the organization to enable the improvements.
Finally, the achievement of objectives, theoretical and managerial contributions, limitations, and future research are contemplated. The theoretical contributions are creating a case study of the business model, thus answering the found phenomenon and needs in the literature, and filling the research gaps found. The main managerial contribution is a detailed and in-depth look at value creation and the ways to achieve the full value potential, and the complex interactions and processes behind the delivery process that need to be in order, and particularly communication for both. Future research topics are studying the topics of this case further inside the case company and studying generally how the value in industrial services is created, communicated, sold, and implemented in practice.
The value creation literature emphasizes the importance of knowing how consumers evaluate value, the significance of digital technology, the digital transformation enabling smart services, and the necessity of demonstrating the worth of smart services. What is found from delivery logic literature is the need to align a company’s operations strategy and service delivery, acknowledgment of employees’ role in building the delivery, and important organizational decisions. Successful service providers motivate staff, create effective procedures, and implement organizational changes. Research gaps found were customer perspective or expectations for value and how to create value in smart services, organizational change in servitization, and changes needed to achieve customer interaction and continuous customer information flow.
The chosen research philosophy is pragmatism, theory development approach abduction, methodology a mono method qualitative study, research strategy an orthodox and embedded single case study and time horizon cross-sectional. The data collection method is a semi-structured interview and data analysis method thematic analysis.
Value logic results include the current diverging views of current value, the importance of identifying the changing value inside the customer organization, the need to invest in future value, working closer with the customer to understand them, sharpening up case company processes, and taking advantage of company’s skills to capture future value and paying more attention to value communication. Delivery logic brings up the lack of a clear delivery process and problems in information flow, the need to train employees on the connectivity widely in the company, favoring of clarification of responsibilities and defining process instead of major organizational changes, the lack of standard customer communication procedure during delivery and the additional human resources needed to solve the previous problem.
The results are discussed and compared to the literature results. From these discussions, twelve recommendations are listed as the answer to the research questions. The recommendations concern the full potential value of current services, perceived customer value, investments for future value, and ways of achieving customer-driven future value. Improvements in customer communication concerning both value creation and delivery process are suggested. Other recommendations about delivery logic include presenting issues in the current delivery process, suggestions to solve them, and changes inside the organization to enable the improvements.
Finally, the achievement of objectives, theoretical and managerial contributions, limitations, and future research are contemplated. The theoretical contributions are creating a case study of the business model, thus answering the found phenomenon and needs in the literature, and filling the research gaps found. The main managerial contribution is a detailed and in-depth look at value creation and the ways to achieve the full value potential, and the complex interactions and processes behind the delivery process that need to be in order, and particularly communication for both. Future research topics are studying the topics of this case further inside the case company and studying generally how the value in industrial services is created, communicated, sold, and implemented in practice.