This ground-breaking research programme is set to shape industrial best practices and influence decisions around industrial policy associated with productivity and de-carbonisation. It will establish evidence to illustrate how servitization impacts both economic productivity and environmental performance (i.e., net-zero and the green economy), and use these insights to influence industrial policy and practice in the UK. This will clarify and explain whether, when, and how the adoption of servitization should be encouraged to maximise the economic and societal impact.
The results of the research will be available to policy makers and businesses through a series of policy and practice papers, business workshops and events and an open-access repository for the scientific, policy, and business communities.
Researchers, from The Advanced Services Group in collaboration with The Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute and The College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Aston University together with researchers at Warwick Business School; will develop a strong theoretical foundation based on prior research on business model innovation and value networks.
They will then engage in theory building through collaborations with a range of industrial partners that are already adopting servitization. The insights obtained will enable econometric models to quantify how adopting servitization and the development of advanced services impacts on a company’s productivity and environmental performance. Experimentation with different models will identify a range of scenarios for companies and maximise the benefits of servitization to the UK’s productivity
It is necessary to better understand the underpinning parameters and relationships between servitization, productivity, environmental performance. Previous studies have tended to focus internally on the firm offering services and provided limited evidence on the wider external impact to the customers and other stakeholders. In addition, they have either explored links with productivity or environmental performance and have overlooked the combined impact. Overall, the relationship between the servitization of industrial firms and both economic productivity and environmental performance has been under researched, so not well understood, and this is inhibiting the adoption of an innovation that could dramatically improve UK productivity and the realisation of net-zero and the green economy. Therefore, our research question is: How and to what extent can servitization impact the economic productivity and the environmental performance of an industrial firm, region and economy within the UK? To address this, we have the objectives of:
Obj 1: (Science and Theory). Establish the foundational science which identifies the key parameters, relationships and contextual factors that fundamentally determine how varying levels (intensity) of servitization can impact both economic productivity and environmental performance.
Obj 2: (Method). Build a reliable evidence base which quantifies and explains the likely outcome of the varying levels (intensity) of servitization on both economic productivity and environmental performance at the level of the firm, region, and the economy.
Obj 3: (Experimentation). Identify scenarios of servitization intensity that maximise the benefits for business and the economy, along with the factors mediating this impact, and draw out key findings for policy and practice.
Obj 4: (Impact and Engagement). Proactively engage the policy, business and scientific communities throughout this programme to both ensure rigour and relevance within the study, and that the findings quickly impact business investment decisions in the UK.
This programme will principally deliver:
Del 1: A comprehensive repository of the models, methods, datasets, findings, and publications which will be open access, and will be a single-source platform for the validation, adoption, and expansion of this research.
Del 2: Reference models for industry that will allow firms to efficiently translate the findings from this study into likely impact on their own businesses, so helping firms to benchmark, form strategy, and shape business investment decisions.
Del 3: A series of policy and practice papers, associated workshops and events to dissemninate the findings from this programme, and target businesses, regional and national government, to influence decisions around industrial policy associated with productivity and net-zero.
