The Role of Asset Ownership in PSS Theory: An Insight from Expert Interviews

The offering portfolios of manufacturing firms have become more servitized, leading to various product-service system (PSS) offerings, traditionally classified as product-oriented, use-oriented, and result-oriented. In this classification, the ownership of the products or assets plays a vital role in characterizing the offering. With industry 4.0, manufacturing firms can exploit new technologies to provide digitally-enabled PSS. On the other hand, the digitally-enabled PSS offerings introduce a new component of complexity concerning their categorization into product-, use-, or result-oriented as new aspects must be considered other than the physical product ownership during the PSS configuration. This paper shows that manufacturing companies define product-, use-, and result-oriented offerings, not only considering the ownership aspects but considering a broader perspective on the topic (e.g., risk assumption, data ownership). Based on the data from nine expert interviews from five different organizations, it was found that ownership of products and assets needs to be reconsidered for the categorization of PSS, as it might not be enough for a complete categorization, especially with digitalization as an enabling technology for PSS offerings.