Understanding the Internal and External Drivers and Barriers for Digital Servitization in the European Textile Manufacturing Industry

Organizations are increasingly transforming their business models from the provision of products toward the provision of services to gain a competitive advantage. This phenomenon is known as servitization, a form of transformation which is particularly accelerated by the impact of digital technologies. Digital servitization is a contemporary topic in academic literature, with few contributions investigating the main forces acting as drivers and barriers. Despite textile manufacturers are progressively developing advanced solutions to stay ahead in the competition, little is known about sectoral-specific drivers and barriers of digital servitization. By addressing this gap, this study aims to shed light on the phenomenon through semi-structured interviews with textile manufacturers and their business partners. This paper provides a first attempt of mapping drivers and barriers, and, by leveraging the contingency theory lens, these have been grouped into six main factors: “technology,” “organization,” “customer,” “competition,” “collaboration,” and “governments and other associations.”