Enacting hard and soft product offerings in mature industries: Moving towards servitisation in Volvo

Journal article, 2013

The purpose of the paper is to give an in-depth account of how Volvo Group is working with enabling open services innovation in the organization. It shows that implementing servitization and open innovation within an engineering-based industry such as heavy vehicles manufacturing, is a matter of substantial 'groundwork' on several levels. This 'groundwork' involves substantial analytical work as well as vast mobilizing of internal organizational support. The paper also empirically connects the notions of open innovation and servitization in a theoretical discussion. The article contributes to the emerging field of open innovation by providing an empirical case from a multinational corporation acting within a 'traditional' industry. It highlights the strong efforts organizations are facing when enacting servitization and open innovation strategies within established practices.