Development of a framework to assess the value-in-use of product service system in the business-to-business sector

With the increase in world-wide competition, reduction in tariff and improvements in communication, manufacturer of developed nations has faced competitive pressures from low-wage economics. These economies are boosting technology capabilities whilst maintaining the advantage of lower cost. This increasing pressure on European manufacturing firms, impelling them to rethink their business strategies. This impels manufacturers of developed economies should have to compete on the basis of innovative products and services. Firms are moving from selling products to selling whole package solutions of products plus services- Product Services Systems (PSS). PSS delivery involves the exploitation of synergies between products and services in a unique configuration as the basis of a new business proposition. These servitized offerings consists an additional customer insight element, which seeks a new measurement systems that account for the service components of manufacturers and which provide greater understanding of the intangible as well as the tangible dimensions of PSS offerings. The aim of this work is to contribute to the understanding of value-in-use of Product Service System. By exploring a significant number of literatures, the author hypothesized three main linkages and proposed a theoretical framework for value-in-use assessment of PSS in Business-to-Business sector, and arranged the influencing components and value-in-use outcome/elements in a systematic way. The list of these components were explored and/or validated by interview with an industry expert/consultant. The findings of the research were the validation of the three hypotheses behind the proposed framework, and the validated components and a proposed value-in-use assessment framework.