Summary of findings
| Conditions | Findings |
|---|---|
| Service offering (SSP and SSC) | There are multiple paths to success with different types of service offerings. It is not the service offering itself that determines success, but the combination with other relevant factors |
| Specific investments | The positive impact of specific investments on cooperation and customer relationship appears to outweigh the risk and transaction cost-enhancing effects Specific investments contribute to servitization success with a limited (Configurations 1–3) as well as an advanced service offering (Configuration 4) With a limited service offering, specific investments exhibit their performance-enhancing effect when combined with opportunism, demand uncertainty (Configuration 1) and customer integration (Configurations 2–3) With an extensive service offering, specific investments contribute to servitization success when combined with low opportunism and demand uncertainty (Configuration 4) Not making specific investments contributes to failure in Configurations 7–11. Only in combination with an extensive service offering, customer integration and complex customer need is a lack of specific investments conducive to success (Configuration 5) |
| Customer opportunism | Opportunism is not a detrimental factor to servitization success and can also coexist with specific investments, still leading to success Under conditions of high demand uncertainty and combined with a limited service offering, specific investments (Configuration 1) and customer integration (Configurations 2–3), companies are successful also in the presence of opportunism A lack of opportunism contributes to success with an advanced offering, either with specific investments under stable demand conditions (Configuration 4) or with customer integration (Configuration 6) Its presence contributes to failure when combined with a limited service offering and a lack of specific investments (Configuration 9) or an offering focused on SSP, a lack of specific investments and stable demand conditions (Configuration 11) |
| Customer integration | Customer integration does not contribute to failure, but its absence does (Configurations 8 and 10) Customer integration is not necessarily required as a safeguard, even under high opportunism (Configuration 1) Customer integration is a contributing factor for success, with a limited (Configurations 2–3) as well as an extensive service offering (Configurations 5–6) |
| Demand uncertainty (Complexity of customer needs) | In the presence of demand uncertainty, an extensive service offering is combined with a lack of specific investments and customer integration (Configuration 5), while in the absence of demand uncertainty and opportunism, an extensive service offering is combined with specific investments (Configuration 4), indicating a higher perceived risk of combining an extensive offering with specific investments under high demand uncertainty The positive reinforcing effect of demand uncertainty on specific investments is observed with a limited service offering and in the presence of opportunism (Configurations 1–3) |
| Conditions | Findings |
|---|---|
| Service offering (SSP and SSC) | There are multiple paths to success with different types of service offerings. It is not the service offering itself that determines success, but the combination with other relevant factors |
| Specific investments | The positive impact of specific investments on cooperation and customer relationship appears to outweigh the risk and transaction cost-enhancing effects |
| Customer opportunism | Opportunism is not a detrimental factor to servitization success and can also coexist with specific investments, still leading to success |
| Customer integration | Customer integration does not contribute to failure, but its absence does (Configurations 8 and 10) |
| Demand uncertainty (Complexity of customer needs) | In the presence of demand uncertainty, an extensive service offering is combined with a lack of specific investments and customer integration (Configuration 5), while in the absence of demand uncertainty and opportunism, an extensive service offering is combined with specific investments (Configuration 4), indicating a higher perceived risk of combining an extensive offering with specific investments under high demand uncertainty |
Source(s): The above table was created by the author