Servitization - Its Raise through Information and Communication Technologies

The main challenge about dealing with servitization arises from the fact that one has to consider several diverging research disciplines, comprising of service science, manufacturing and operations management equally. Besides, contemporary economic environments are influenced by rapid development of information and communication technologies in different spheres. Thus, the servitizing companies are increasingly confronted with several substantial challenges on the implementation of novel ICT applications, which in turn may be a promising approach to exploit its capabilities to generate competitive advantage. Accordingly, first we discuss the fundamental impact of emergent ICTs on business models and customer behavior. Next, we examine the dedicated implications on the servitization sourced from ICT capabilities. Besides, a brief overview of current implementations is given, which in turn needs to be further broadened. Finally, potentially-valuable research directions, since the paper is a primary step in our research on the ICT and servitization inter-relationing, are proposed.