Assessing the Product–Service Systems Supply Chain Capabilities: Construct and Instrument Development

Abstract

. Product – service systems (PSS) has become a major subject of concern for many industries because of their benefits and the possibilities to reduce negative environmental impacts and address environmental sustainability concerns. Despite the benefits of PSS, little empirical research has been conducted to investigate the PSS supply chain (SC) capabilities constructs. This study offers original contributions to the valid and reliable construct and instrument development to measure the PSS SC capabilities. A systematic approach was employed to develop and validate an instrument for evaluating the PSS SC capabilities. This comprises specifying domains of constructs, generating a sample of items, conducting interrater agreement analysis, testing non-response bias, and assessing the instrument using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The validity of the proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling based on a large-scale online survey from 447 participants working for motorcycle service partners. The result shows seven distinctive PSS SC capabilities constructs, namely knowledge assessment, partner development, co-evolving, reflexive control, re-conceptualization, innovative service delivery, and sustainable product – service capability. The development of the instrument contributes a validated tool for companies to measure their PSS SC capabilities.