From data to value: conceptualising data-driven product service system

Abstract

Abstract With the rise of digital technologies, the possibility to retrieve a large amount of data from connected sources can become a key source of value creation in the context of service provision. Nevertheless, product service offerings that can be built on data retrieved from connected products, that we will call data-driven product service system, remains poorly covered from both the academic and the practitioners’ perspectives. Notably, a univocal definition of the characteristics of data-driven product service system is still missing. Therefore, this paper represents a first attempt in the systematic definition of data-driven services types and their features as a fundamental step to support their understanding and development. To accomplish this aim, the paper proposes a holistic view of data-driven product service system characteristics, employing a two-level hierarchical conceptual framework for business to business applications. The framework is constructed with a theory-building approach involving multiple industrial companies. The paper eventually reports a case study to demonstrate the applicability of the framework.