Can Market Segmentation Support the Creation of Digitally-Enabled Product-Service Systems?—A Semi-Systematic Literature Review

Research increasingly covers digitalization as a driver of servitization towards digitally-enabled product-service systems (PSS). These systems call for new business models and value co-creation for the development and delivery of value propositions. However, the success of a PSS strategy is dependent on the involved actors. Market segmentation is a process of examining and grouping customers and targeting them with specific value propositions. Companies can then benefit from a better understanding of customer needs and a differentiated marketing strategy that leads to competitive advantages. It seems that market segmentation could support the creation of digitally-enabled PSS. However, there seems to be only scarce literature that builds a connection between the two research fields. Therefore, this paper uses a semi-systematic literature review to identify and apprise the state of knowledge. Of the ten papers found to be relevant, only one paper can answer the research question fully. The results show a clear research gap. Nonetheless, the analysis indicates that the topic of market segmentation is often discussed in combination with value co-creation. Examining segmentation in this context could further the understanding of how a digitally-enabled PSS architecture based on market segmentation can improve an industrial business-to-business (B2B) company’s competitive position.