Capabilities for the internet of things enabled product-service system business models

ABSTRACT

The Internet of things (IoT) transforms how businesses operate, create, and deliver products and services. Despite increasing interest in IoT business models, knowledge of the capabilities needed to implement them remains vague. The objective of this paper is to investigate patterns found in 21 empirical tested cases covering several industries. This paper identifies the most common capabilities (connectivity, data management and storage, monitoring, data analytics, control, operations management, maintenance, communication, applications, and security) in an IoT-Product Service System (PSS). Industry practitioners can use this information to visualise linkages between their intended business model and capabilities when developing IoT-PSSs.

KEYWORDS:

• IoT
• product-service system
• business model
• capabilities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elina Karttunen

Elina Karttunen (first author), is a Post-Doctoral Researcher from the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT University), in the LUT School of Business and Management. Her research interests include technology management and purchasing and supply management. She has been participated to numerous research projects in the field of technology management and competencies of purchasing.

Mikko Pynnönen

Mikko Pynnönen (second author), is Professor at the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT University). Prof. Pynnönen is responsible director in several research projects in the field of services, value creation and business development. His main research interests include value creation in business systems. He has published over 60 scientific articles on business models and value creation in the academic and managerial journals e.g. Journal of Business Strategy and International Journal of Production Economics. He has developed these topics in close connection with several firms from a wide variety of industries, including e.g. Digitalisation, Healthcare, Forest, and Energy.

Luke Treves

Luke Treves MSc (third author), is a junior researcher and doctoral candidate at the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT University). He holds a M.Sc. (Business and Economics) from LUT University. His main research interests include business model innovation and design, particularly its intersection with Industry 4.0, Digital Transformation (Digitalisation), the IoT, and Business Model Innovation. His academic works have considered Digitalisation, the Internet of Things, Product Service Systems, Digital Platforms, Business Model Innovation and Systems thinking.

Jukka Hallikas

Jukka Hallikas (fourth author), is Professor in Supply Management at the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT University). In addition, he is a member of the Board of the Finnish Purchasing and Logistics Association (LOGY) and the Logistics Research Promotion Foundation (LTES). His research interests include procurement management, service business and supply network management.