Knowledge in Servitization Management: A Comparative View

121 Pages·2022·4.367 MB·English

by  H. M. Belal, Kunio Shirahada, Michitaka Kosaka, Olatunde Amoo Durowoju

Knowledge in Servitization
Management
A Comparative View
H. M. Belal
Kunio Shirahada
Michitaka Kosaka
Olatunde Amoo Durowoju
Knowledge in Servitization Management
· ·
H. M. Belal Kunio Shirahada
·
Michitaka Kosaka Olatunde Amoo Durowoju
Knowledge
in Servitization
Management
A Comparative View
H. M. Belal Kunio Shirahada
School of Business and Management, Transformative Knowledge
Liverpool Business School Management Research Area,
Liverpool John Moores University Graduate School of Knowledge
Liverpool, UK Science
Japan Advanced Institute of Science
Michitaka Kosaka and Technology
Japan Advanced Institute of Science Nomi, Japan
and Technology
Nomi, Japan Olatunde Amoo Durowoju
School of Business and Management,
Liverpool Business School
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool, Merseyside, UK
ISBN 978-3-031-18686-8 ISBN 978-3-031-18687-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18687-5
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To my dearly loved parents Md Akbar Ali P. K. and Mrs. Joygon Begum,
my family have always surrounded me with inspiration- my wife, sons,
brothers, and sisters.
H. M. Belal
Preface
During the last two decades, remarkable changes have occurred in the
world’s business environment. Firms have realized the importance of
service to sustain as well as innovate their business. Consumers desire
service-based value through a knowledge co-creation process rather than
the manufactured goods alone. This has instigated a big task for tradi-
tional manufacturers to create knowledge and adapt to such trends and
create new business line-ups. It is suggested that manufacturing compa-
nies need to have a value chain perspective and should adapt servitization
as a new business opportunity. While there are several definitions of servi-
tization, authors adopt the definition of servitization as the transition
process of adding service concepts into product-based business in manu-
facturing companies. Servitization is a new way of thinking for traditional
product-based businesses and represents new business opportunities.
However, managing it successfully is a difficult challenge. Servitization
requires the development of a new service opportunity in terms of knowl-
edge co-creation with customers. Therefore, the first part of this book
discusses the theoretical view of knowledge in relation to servitization.
This is important because a defining component of the value co-creation
process in servitization requires integrating knowledge from different
parties, such as human resources and organizations. Consequently, the
first part of this book review connects and applies the knowledge view
of relevant service concepts including service-dominant (S-D) logic and
product service system (PSS) to servitization.
vii
viii PREFACE
The knowledge view includes four sections. The first one provides
and explains a clear overview of ‘knowledge concept’ using up-to-
date sources. The second section discusses ‘knowledge management and
knowledge creation concept’. It shows the importance of understanding
and proper management approach and creates new knowledge according
to that plan into service value creation. Knowledge management and
organizational learning are all about the dealings and interaction between
tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge through working on informa-
tion treatment, corporate infrastructure, culture, people’s mindset, and
so on. This section also shows that organizational knowledge manage-
ment practice is a regular aspect as the organization always aims to offer
service per market situation, and managing knowledge is required for
it. The third section is ‘development of knowledge management and
knowledge creation in process application’, where the theories and models
suggest that the constant dialogue between tacit knowledge and explicit
knowledge is significant for knowledge creation and knowledge creation
is a dynamic process. This part also describes the influence of collabo-
ration on the aim of the idea, concept, and/or information sharing in
managing new knowledge for a service-based value offering. It argues the
importance of corporate collaboration is increasing due to changing busi-
ness environment from a goods-oriented to a service-oriented basis. To
become a service-oriented view business platform, additional resources are
required. In this scheme, two or more independent organized businesses
‘engage in collaboration and share or integrate their competencies (e.g.,
resources, knowledge)’ to achieve a common purpose of new knowledge
creation. The fourth section is ‘knowledge management and knowledge
creation practice in the service sector’. This part describes GE Health-
care’s knowledge management and knowledge creation practice as an
example. The example shows that GE relates all its competencies and
strengths to manufacturing its medical equipment. Simultaneously, they
connected with their stakeholders to gather and share knowledge and
generate more services to achieve total hospital management. Therefore,
developing an active method of connecting stakeholders to understand
their value and create services as a solution. Another good example is
Nike Inc., which collaborated with Apple and has become a servitized firm
through knowledge integration in managing and co-creating knowledge
to produce service-based value.
PREFACE ix
Again, the ‘servitization view’ includes four sections: service concept,
service-dominant logic (SDL), product service system (PSS), and serviti-
zation. The service concept part reviews the service literature and defined
service. The SDL section explains the goods-based company’s trends
to move into the service-oriented view, and thereby, the company can
produce the customer’s desired value. PSS unit clarifies the company’s
functional aspect to engage in service offering to the market for maxi-
mizing customer value. And servitization portion gives the overview of
a company’s operational process, transforming from the goods-based
and/or product-based view to a service-based one.
And based on the review of theory, this section also develops a model
called the ‘knowledge-oriented servitization management model’.
A knowledge-oriented servitization management model is considered
as an ‘organizational learning outline and its transformational approach’
in this book. Since to manage a successful servitization, a product-based
company should be capable of dealing with new knowledge and adopting
a co-creation process or ‘system’ with the aim of offering service-based
value. Consequently, additional resources are required to support this
both internally and externally. In this, ‘resource integration’ along with
partners’ involvement is the most appropriate technique for dealing with
and adapting the stated ‘system’. The knowledge-oriented servitization
management model supports the theory and concept explained in this
book and connects readers to existing knowledge. It also gives the
foundation of our hypotheses in this book.
The second part of this book examines Asia-based businesses in both
developed and developing economies (Focuses on Japan and Malaysia)
and six real-life examples for testing the proposed model and theories.
Authors selected Japanese and Malaysian businesses to contrast successful
and failed examples from developed (Japan) and developing (Malaysia)
country perspectives. Moreover, according to this book’s hypothesis, the
company can manage knowledge-oriented servitization through ‘different
knowledge integration’ and ‘organizational knowledge creation’, so the
case examples are designed to confirm the mentioned hypothesis and
test theories and concepts. For instance, HDRIVE-Hitachi Capital Case
and Uniqlo-Toray Case confirm ‘different knowledge integration’ percep-
tions in the servitization practice. Japanese Monitor Maker: Company
‘A’; PKT Logistics Group; and Feruni Ceramiche (Malaysian Ceramiche
company) confirm organizational knowledge creation perception in servi-
tization management practice. In addition, Company B (health products
x PREFACE
and traditional medicines manufacturer) is considered a failure case in
this book. At the same time, a successful discussion presented over this
company is based on knowledge and service view aimed at servitization.
Evidence was collected through a series of investigations, actions (e.g.,
seminars, workshops, and training), and structured interviews. Then, the
accumulated evidence is further analyzed through the theoretical lenses
of service science, knowledge science, servitization concept, organiza-
tional culture management, and operations management. However, by
looking into different case examples and comparisons, readers can gain an
insight into the co-creating knowledge process and understand why ‘inte-
grating knowledge’ from operating partners and/or through ‘creating
organizational knowledge’ is significant for transforming a traditional
product-based company into a service-based value provider. This book
would be handy for those who are in the field of researching and teaching
operations, service, and knowledge management. The students will be
able to learn about knowledge and service views. They also will gain
insight into servitization management practice by analyzing the proposed
model and evaluating different case examples. In addition, it will be
beneficial for practicing managers with limited experience and knowledge
of building resource-based models/frameworks to manage and change
organizational culture.
Finally, authors hope this book can encourage further academic interest
with more exploratory and empirical studies conducted in this significant
or related study area.
Liverpool, UK H. M. Belal
Nomi, Japan Kunio Shirahada
Nomi, Japan Michitaka Kosaka
Liverpool, UK Olatunde Amoo Durowoju
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge an immeasurable debt of gratefulness to the
almighty God, the supreme merciful and kind. Authors would like to
acknowledge the reviewers who reviewed and provided their invaluable
feedback on the draft manuscript. Their comments helped us to improve
the quality of this book.
Authors would like to thank the staff at Palgrave Macmillan who
contributed, directly or indirectly, to the editing and production of this
book. I sincerely thank Alec Selwyn, Abarna Antonyra, Srishti Gupta,
Ruth Jenner, Andreas Beierwaltes, and Guido Zosimo-Landolfo.
Thanks also go to the students and collaborators who helped us at
various stages of this project in many ways, such as giving up-to-date
information, most notably Dato’ Michael Tio, Quamrul Hasan, Norani
Nordin, Naoki Takahashi, Dato’ CC Ngei, and Anas Hasbullah. Authors
would like to convey our gratitude to all case companies and their
employees for providing support and feedback to share perceptions and
experiences in this book project.
Authors would like to thank our colleagues at the Liverpool Busi-
ness School, Liverpool John Moores University, UK, and the School of
xi