Service Sensemaking: Conceptualization and Realization - A study of an energy company in Sweden

Licentiate thesis, 2025

Faced with increasing pressure to contribute to sustainable development, many energy
companies are turning to service-based models to support demand-side management and
customer engagement. However, while the theoretical benefits of adopting a service-logic are
well established, the practical transition is creating challenges. This is particularly true in
traditional and regulated sectors like energy, where servitization efforts remain subject to
challenges, due to unclear ways of working, vague service concepts, and limited customer
involvement.
This thesis explores how an energy company undergoing servitization navigates this transition,
with a particular focus on the creation of shared understanding around services. Drawing on a
longitudinal, qualitative study and guided by engaged scholarship, I introduce Service
Sensemaking, an analytical construct developed through close collaboration between
researchers and practitioners. The thesis consists of two papers, each of which contributes to
the exploration on how services are understood, interpreted and enacted across organizational
boundaries, which is guided by the value sphere structure.
The first paper examines the organizational challenges of adopting a service logic, highlighting
the need of identity and cultural change. The second paper focuses on the role of customer
involvement and the underexplored connection between provider and customer value spheres
by investigating service episodes. In both papers, I apply a sensemaking lens to explore the
importance of developing a collective way of working and thinking on how to understand
services.
Together, the findings show that servitization requires more than structural change; it depends
on the ability of individuals and organizations to make sense of services in context. This
includes shifting mental models, creating shared meaning, and integrating customer
perspectives into everyday service practices. Service Sensemaking offers a conceptual and
practical contribution to understanding how, where and when services are being understood to
realize a service transformation in complex organizational settings. Thus, services are not only
something actors make sense about, but also something they make sense with. In other words,
working with services becomes a way to construct meaning, where services are both the subject
and the ground for sensemaking.