The Effect of Product Complexity on Servitization and Deservitization: A Multi-Country Quantitative Analysis

Jasna Prester, Andrea Bikfalvi () and Iztok Palčič
Additional contact information
Jasna Prester: Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Andrea Bikfalvi: Escola Politècnica Superior, Universitat de Girona, 17003 Girona, Spain
Iztok Palčič: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-16

Abstract: Servitization is often based on technology, with the producer not selling products but rather offering product-related services. While servitization had been steadily gaining interest until relatively recently, a new trend called deservitization, the outsourcing of service provision, has seen a slow uptake in the scientific literature. This work analyses why servitization is not always beneficial. We analyze the effect of product complexity on servitization and deservitization in three Southern European countries. Due to high competition and knowledge leaking, manufacturers of complex products tend to servitize with their own resources, thus avoiding deservitization or outsourcing of service provision. The analysis is performed using two-step OLS regression. The results confirm that the hypotheses and the model are significant and that manufacturers of simple products tend to deservitize, while manufacturers of complex products tend to servitize. Managerial implications refer to alternatives as to when to enter the servitization arena and when it is more beneficial to deservitize.

Keywords: servitization; deservitization; manufacturing; technology; EMS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/11885/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/11885/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:19:p:11885-:d:920750

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().