Digital Servitization and Modularity: Responding to Requirements in Use

Ellen Hughes (), Glenn Parry () and Philip Davies ()
Additional contact information
Ellen Hughes: University of the West of England
Glenn Parry: University of Surrey
Philip Davies: University of Reading

A chapter in The Palgrave Handbook of Servitization, 2021, pp 457-469 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract When moving towards digitally enabled advanced services firms are faced with the challenge of servicing heterogeneous customer requirements that emerge during product use. Whereas offers may have been designed with fixed functionality and a focus on stable outcomes, in the advanced service environment providers must respond to a variety of demands emergent from multiple contexts of use. Using a case example from healthcare, this chapter illustrates that adopting a modular systems approach to a firm’s offer enhances its ability to meet customers’ heterogeneous requirements in use. The chapter shows that through the application of modularity, in combination with digital and material technology, products can have the flexibility to absorb variety in use. Modularity and digitisation permit the binding of form and function to be postponed until requirements emerge in use, allowing the organisation to quickly tailor the offering to emergent demand.

Keywords: Modularity; Digital servitization; Systems thinking; Innovation; Healthcare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-75771-7_29

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783030757717

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-75771-7_29

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().