The productization of services : a market-centred approach to shaping collaboration and innovation

• Main Author: Hemple, James Grant
• Published: University of Glasgow 2018
• Subjects: HF Commerce
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.761958

The aim of this thesis is to explore how the productization of services is organised as a way of facilitating collaboration and arranging innovation. To achieve this the study is situated within the Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing discipline and draws on the theoretical perspectives of Market Studies. The central theoretical focus of the thesis unfolds against three distinct but interrelated research questions: How is productization mobilised and exchanged by market actors? What effect does marketization have on market shaping practices? How does a firm’s business model facilitate its ability to organise and capture value? The case firm selected as the context of enquiry was a large Scottish public utility firm that delivered two key utility services to consumers and operates within a unique and complex regulatory framework. Adopting a pragmatic research philosophy based on abductive reasoning, a multi-method qualitative study was undertaken, and empirical data collected using a single case study approach. The study theoretically contributes to Marketing Studies by unpacking the performativity of the marketing object, which is found to be purposefully, consistently and temporarily destabilised and re-stabilised by actors, as they undertake agentic calculations during the productization processes. Further, the findings advance business model theory by illustrating the plurality of co-existing business models within a single firm, which dynamically span boundaries. The findings show that co-existing business models were wrapped in a collaborative spatio-temporal nature, and that this is framed through the six-year regulatory investment periods enforced upon the large public utility firm by regulators. The findings further contribute that the use of market devices are fundamental in the ability to shape market practice, demonstrated as case actors struggle to singularize the device due to lack of sound calculative abilities, resulting in attempts of qualification, which adds to the theoretical view that market devices need to be refined and calibrated. The main contribution of the thesis to practice demonstrates that organisations seeking to productize should fundamentally consider the context of the market, and industry that they exchange within. This thesis demonstrates that adopting a productized service offering will augment the knowledge and expertise required by the business to deliver value to its consumers and require restabilising of market practices.