As digitalisation increasingly encompasses entire service ecosystems, it modifies resource integration patterns that connect ecosystem actors through strong and weak ties. To clarify how technological development contributes to this change, and how resource integration transforms the service ecosystem, this qualitative case study explores the digitalisation strategy of a market-leading systems integrator in the maritime industry. Based on 40 depth interviews with managers, the findings show how technology increasingly serves as a key operant resource in the transformation of resource integration patterns. The study contributes to ecosystem dynamics research by identifying major differences between the pre-digitalised and digitalised states of a service ecosystem, and demonstrates the dual role of technology in both increasing pattern complexity and facilitating coordination of that complexity.

Harnessing digital technology is of increasing concern as product firms organize for service-led growth. Adopting a service ecosystem perspective, we analyze interfirm and intrafirm change processes taking place as firms pursue digital servitization. The study draws on in-depth interviews with 44 managers involved in organizing activities in two multinational industry leaders. Our findings identify major differences between the two focal firms in terms of digital service-led growth and associated ecosystem-related activities. The study disentangles underlying processes of organizational change in the ecosystem and suggests that within-firm centralization and integration play a key role in the capacity to organize for digital servitization. For managers, the findings highlight the need to foster service-centricity in order to take full advantage of digitalization beyond purely technological benefits.

In this chapter, the authors argue that, in the absence of a clear management focus on how data will create value for customers, the incumbent firm’s digital servitization journey will fail. What is required is a purposeful and coordinated effort to manage the firm’s strong and weak business relationships. Hence, it is a journey that goes beyond the individual firm and encompasses integration of resources among actors embedded within a larger structure, the service ecosystem. Incumbent firms need to recognise that going digital does not mean they can cut all of their strong “analogue” links; they need to investigate which ones will continue to be important to create value for their customers. Otherwise, the firm risks becoming data-driven but lacking any contextual competences, knowledge or skills related to solving customers’ problems. A digital servitization transformation requires maintenance of a balance between weak and strong relationships linked to creating value for – and with – customers.

This chapter illuminates the challenges of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face when transforming to digital servitization. It is suggested that to embrace and overcome these challenges; the SME needs to undergo three transformational shifts: dematerialization, identity, and collaboration. The enabler for these shifts is SMEs' closeness to their customers and that they thus have a good understanding of their customers' (and customers' customers) needs. It is also the collaboration shift with the most substantial possibilities as SMEs are used to coordinate activities with other actors. The biggest challenge is to make the dematerialization shift - separate information from the physical world - as it usually requires a high level of technical competencies and financial strength. The identity shift might also be hard for SMEs, as organizational culture has been proven to be relatively resistant to change.

Manufacturers increasingly look to digitalization to drive service growth. However, success is far from guaranteed, and many firms focus too much on technology. Adopting a discovery-oriented, theories-in-use approach, this study examines the strategic organizational shifts that underpin digital servitization. Notwithstanding strong managerial and academic interest, this link between digitalization and servitization is still under-investigated. Depth interviews with senior executives and managers from a global market leader revealed that to achieve digital service-led growth, a firm and its network need to make three interconnected shifts: (1) from planning to discovery, (2) from scarcity to abundance, and (3) from hierarchy to partnership. Organizational identity, dematerialization, and collaboration play a key role in this transformation. For managers, the study identifies a comprehensive set of strategic change initiatives needed to ensure successful digital servitization.