The implementation of services within traditional business models is an increasingly common strategy to make companies more sustainable and circular. However, this transition presents numerous barriers. While previous studies have provided a general overview of the role of technology and identified the main challenges in delivering high-quality circular services, this research aims to bridge the two areas by clearly demonstrating how each digital technology can be leveraged to overcome specific barriers and enable certain types of circular services. To achieve this goal, a literature review was conducted on a corpus of 89 documents, focusing on the connections between individual technologies, challenges, and circular services. This analysis allowed for the categorization of challenges within different components of the value architecture, the identification of servitization strategies, and the recognition of the digital technologies with the greatest potential to address servitization challenges, including Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data Analytics (BDA), and Blockchain. The result of this analysis is a visual framework that clearly illustrates the direct links between each technology, business challenges, and the types of services they can enable. The empirical analysis enriched the findings from the literature review through qualitative and semi-structured interviews conducted with three major companies operating in the Italian and European markets. These companies provided first-hand insights on how they utilize digital technologies to support the delivery of circular services. The findings indicate that the characteristics of the analyzed technologies can be leveraged in a complementary manner, offering an integrated strategic approach to circular servitization. Big Data Analytics emerges as a key tool for value creation, although this hypothesis was only partially confirmed by the interviews. IoT proves to be a fundamental enabler of value delivery, demonstrating particular effectiveness in overcoming the most significant barriers identified in the literature. Conversely, the role of Blockchain appears to be less relevant than suggested in theoretical studies, as interviewed companies highlighted its complexity in implementation and integration, making it challenging to adopt in this context.
L’implementazione dei servizi nei modelli di business tradizionali rappresenta una strategia sempre più diffusa per rendere più sostenibili e circolari le imprese. Tuttavia, questa transizione presenta numerose barriere. Mentre studi precedenti hanno fornito una visione generale del ruolo della tecnologia e identificato i principali ostacoli nel fornire servizi circolari di qualità, questa ricerca mira a collegare i due ambiti mostrando in modo chiaro come ciascuna tecnologia digitale possa essere sfruttata per superare specifiche barriere e abilitare determinate tipologie di servizi circolari. Per raggiungere questo scopo, è stata condotta una revisione della letteratura su un corpus di 89 documenti, finalizzata ad approfondire i collegamenti tra singola tecnologia, challenge e servizio circolare. Da questa analisi è stato possibile categorizzare gli ostacoli all’interno delle diverse componenti della value architecture, fornire una panoramica delle strategie di servitizzazione adottate ed identificare le tecnologie con maggiore potenziale nell'affrontare le sfide della servitizzazione tra cui Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data Analytics (BDA) e Blockchain. Il risultato di questa analisi è un framework visivo che mostra, per ciascuna tecnologia, i collegamenti diretti con le sfide aziendali e le tipologie di servizi che può abilitare.L’analisi empirica ha arricchito i risultati della revisione della letteratura attraverso interviste qualitative e semi-strutturate condotte con tre grandi aziende operanti nei mercati italiano ed europeo. Queste aziende hanno fornito una prospettiva diretta su come sfruttano le tecnologie digitali a supporto dell’erogazione dei loro servizi circolari. I risultati mostrano che le caratteristiche delle tecnologie analizzate possono essere sfruttate in modo complementare, offrendo un approccio strategico integrato alla servitizzazione circolare. Il Big Data Analytics emerge come uno strumento chiave per la value creation, anche se questa ipotesi è stata confermata parzialmente dalle interviste. L’IoT si rivela un abilitatore fondamentale per la value delivery, risultando particolarmente efficace nel superare le barriere più significative individuate in letteratura. Diversamente, il ruolo della Blockchain risulta meno rilevante di quanto indicato negli studi teorici: le aziende intervistate ne hanno sottolineato la complessità di implementazione e integrazione, rendendola di difficile adozione in questo contesto.
Enabling the transition towards circular business model: the role of digital technologies in overcoming circular servitization challenges
Iannella, Pierfrancesco
2023/2024
Abstract
The implementation of services within traditional business models is an increasingly common strategy to make companies more sustainable and circular. However, this transition presents numerous barriers. While previous studies have provided a general overview of the role of technology and identified the main challenges in delivering high-quality circular services, this research aims to bridge the two areas by clearly demonstrating how each digital technology can be leveraged to overcome specific barriers and enable certain types of circular services. To achieve this goal, a literature review was conducted on a corpus of 89 documents, focusing on the connections between individual technologies, challenges, and circular services. This analysis allowed for the categorization of challenges within different components of the value architecture, the identification of servitization strategies, and the recognition of the digital technologies with the greatest potential to address servitization challenges, including Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data Analytics (BDA), and Blockchain. The result of this analysis is a visual framework that clearly illustrates the direct links between each technology, business challenges, and the types of services they can enable. The empirical analysis enriched the findings from the literature review through qualitative and semi-structured interviews conducted with three major companies operating in the Italian and European markets. These companies provided first-hand insights on how they utilize digital technologies to support the delivery of circular services. The findings indicate that the characteristics of the analyzed technologies can be leveraged in a complementary manner, offering an integrated strategic approach to circular servitization. Big Data Analytics emerges as a key tool for value creation, although this hypothesis was only partially confirmed by the interviews. IoT proves to be a fundamental enabler of value delivery, demonstrating particular effectiveness in overcoming the most significant barriers identified in the literature. Conversely, the role of Blockchain appears to be less relevant than suggested in theoretical studies, as interviewed companies highlighted its complexity in implementation and integration, making it challenging to adopt in this context.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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2025_04_Iannella_tesi_01.pdf
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2025_04_Iannella_Executive Summary_02.pdf
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/236441