IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v64y2011i12p1270-1280.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competitive advantage through service differentiation by manufacturing companies

Author

Listed:
  • Gebauer, Heiko
  • Gustafsson, Anders
  • Witell, Lars

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship among the complexity of customer needs, customer centricity, innovativeness, service differentiation, and business performance within the context of companies that have made a service transition from pure goods providers to service providers. A survey of 332 manufacturing companies provides the basis for the empirical investigation. One key finding is that a strong emphasis on service differentiation can lead to a manufacturing firm's strategies for customer centricity being less sensitive to increasingly complex customer needs, which can increase a firm's payoff for customer centricity. In contrast, the payoff from innovativeness appears to be higher if the firm focuses its resources on either product or service innovation; that is, a dual focus does not work well. This paper discusses the implications of these findings for researchers and managers.

Suggested Citation

  • Gebauer, Heiko & Gustafsson, Anders & Witell, Lars, 2011. "Competitive advantage through service differentiation by manufacturing companies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(12), pages 1270-1280.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:64:y:2011:i:12:p:1270-1280
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.01.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296311000233
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.01.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vandermerwe, Sandra & Rada, Juan, 1988. "Servitization of business: Adding value by adding services," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 314-324, December.
    2. Slater, Stanley F. & Narver, John C., 2000. "The Positive Effect of a Market Orientation on Business Profitability: A Balanced Replication," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 69-73, April.
    3. M. Antioco & R.K. Moenaert & A. Lindgreen & M.G.M. Wetzels, 2008. "Organizational antecedents to and consequences of service business orientations in manufacturing companies," Post-Print hal-00285794, HAL.
    4. David G. Hoopes & Tammy L. Madsen & Gordon Walker, 2003. "Guest editors' introduction to the special issue: why is there a resource‐based view? Toward a theory of competitive heterogeneity," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(10), pages 889-902, October.
    5. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1504-1511, December.
    6. Sheth, Jagdish N. & Parvatiyar, Atul, 1995. "The evolution of relationship marketing," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 397-418.
    7. Yoon, Eunsang & Guffey, Hugh J. & Kijewski, Valerie, 1993. "The effects of information and company reputation on intentions to buy a business service," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 215-228, July.
    8. Davis, Peter S. & Schul, Patrick L., 1993. "Addressing the contingent effects of business unit strategic orientation on relationships between organizational context and business unit performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 183-200, July.
    9. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and the Sustainability of Competitive Advantage: Reply," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1514-1514, December.
    10. Michael Antioco & Rudy Moenaert & Adam Lindgreen & Martin Wetzels, 2008. "Organizational antecedents to and consequences of service business orientations in manufacturing companies," Post-Print hal-02312526, HAL.
    11. Thomas C. Powell, 1995. "Total quality management as competitive advantage: A review and empirical study," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 15-37.
    12. Valérie Mathieu, 2001. "Product services: from a service supporting the product to a service supporting the client," Post-Print hal-01796270, HAL.
    13. Andrew Davies, 2004. "Moving base into high-value integrated solutions: a value stream approach," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 13(5), pages 727-756, October.
    14. Selnes, Fred & Jaworski, Bernard J. & Kohli, Ajay K., 1996. "Market orientation in United States and Scandinavian companies. A cross-cultural study," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 139-157, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alina Neamtu Idorasi & Stelian Stancu & Oana Madalina Popescu & Ionut Constantin, 2019. "The customer perspective – an effective and efficient way to differentiate for companies in the globalization era," Manager Journal, Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, vol. 30(1), pages 31-51, December.
    2. Alina Neamtu (Idorasi) & Stelian Stancu & Gheorghe Hurduzeu, 2020. "Creating Effective Customer Solutions – a Global Perspective," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 23(75), pages 38-69, March.
    3. Gebauer, Heiko & Saul, Caroline, 2014. "Eine bibliometrische Analyse des Forschungsstandes und der zukünftigen Forschungsfragen für die Transformation vom Produzenten zum Dienstleister," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 68(4), pages 229-249.
    4. Lucie Kanovska & Eva Tomaskova, 2018. "The Impact of Service Offering on Business Performance in Electrical Engineering Companies," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 92-108.
    5. Oana Madalina Popescu & Stelian Stancu & Alina Neamtu Idorasi & Paul Marinescu, 2019. "Customer solutions – new sources of sustainable competitive advantage in times of global economic crisis," Manager Journal, Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, vol. 30(1), pages 7-30, December.
    6. repec:ers:journl:v:volumexxi:y:2018:i:issue4:p:92-108 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Bernhard Dachs & Sabine Biege & Martin Borowiecki & Gunter Lay & Angela Jäger & Doris Schartinger, 2014. "Servitisation of European manufacturing: evidence from a large scale database," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 5-23, January.
    8. Peter Qvist-Sørensen, 2020. "Applying IIoT and AI - Opportunities, Requirements and Challenges for Industrial Machine and Equipment Manufacturers to Expand Their Services," Central European Business Review, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2020(2), pages 46-77.
    9. Ornella Benedettini, 2022. "Structuring Servitization-Related Capabilities: A Data-Driven Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, May.
    10. Wim Coreynen & Arjen van Witteloostuijn & Johanna Vanderstraeten, 2021. "Toward Servitized Research: An Integrated Approach for Sustainable Product-Service Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-21, July.
    11. Hadwich, Karsten & Vogel, Henrik, 2014. "Systemlösungsorientierung als Strategieoption der Servicetransformation: Umsetzung und Erfolgswirkungen im Vertrieb," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 68(4), pages 282-299.
    12. Sminia, Harry & Ates, Aylin & Paton, Steve & Smith, Marisa, 2019. "High value manufacturing: Capability, appropriation, and governance," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 516-528.
    13. Yu Zhang & Yajuan Wang & Yao Li, 2021. "Facilitating Servitization in Manufacturing Firms: The Influence of Strategic Orientation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-20, December.
    14. Rabetino, Rodrigo & Kohtamäki, Marko & Gebauer, Heiko, 2017. "Strategy map of servitization," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 144-156.
    15. Wei, Zelong & Huang, Wengao & Wang, Yanping & Sun, Lulu, 2022. "When does servitization promote product innovation? The moderating roles of product modularization and organization formalization," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    16. Wang, Yanping & Gao, Jie & Wei, Zelong, 2022. "The double-edged sword of servitization in radical product innovation: The role of latent needs identification," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    17. Yan, Kaining & Li, Gang & Cheng, T.C.E., 2020. "The impact of service-oriented organizational design factors on firm performance: The moderating role of service-oriented corporate culture," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    18. Siri Jagstedt & Magnus Persson, 2019. "Using Platform Strategies In The Development Of Integrated Product-Service Solutions," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(04), pages 1-36, May.
    19. Galbreath, Jeremy & Galvin, Peter, 2008. "Firm factors, industry structure and performance variation: New empirical evidence to a classic debate," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 109-117, February.
    20. Annika Veh & Markus Göbel & Rick Vogel, 2019. "Corporate reputation in management research: a review of the literature and assessment of the concept," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 12(2), pages 315-353, December.
    21. Jovanovic, Marin & Raja, Jawwad Z. & Visnjic, Ivanka & Wiengarten, Frank, 2019. "Paths to service capability development for servitization: Examining an internal service ecosystem," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 472-485.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:64:y:2011:i:12:p:1270-1280. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.