The impact of servitization on firm performance: a meta-analysis

By Weijiao Wang, Kee-Hung Lai, Yongyi Shou. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 2018

155 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Purpose Servitization has been recognized as an effective means for manufacturers to achieve superior performance. However, the servitization-performance relationship is controversial since prior empirical studies have provided inconsistent and even contradictory results. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative review on the servitization-performance relationship based on research findings reported in the extant literature. Design/methodology/approach Studies from 41 peer-reviewed journal articles were sampled and analyzed. A meta-analytic approach was adopted to conduct a quantitative review on the relationship between servitization and firm performance. Findings The results confirm a positive servitization-performance relationship. In addition, the results reveal that the observed servitization-performance relationship is influenced by the operationalization of constructs (servitization and performance) and control variables (industry and region). Originality/value As the first meta-analysis on the servitization-performance relationship, this study contributes to the servitization literature and provides future research directions.

Subfields: Management Information Systems, Marketing, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/604621b9bd1b4fadf59b8b8792cf7372033bf89c