Value Co-Creation and Service-Dominant Logic: Organizational Adoption and Readiness within the Automation Industry

Value Co-Creation (VCC) was coined “The Future of Competition” indicating positive outcomes for organizations. In this sense recent research streams have focused on the customer at research level. Additionally, VCC is closely linked to the new Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) view which is positioned in contrast to the old view of Goods-Dominant Logic (GDL). The past research on SDL is heavily dominated by theoretical and conceptual work. This thesis follows the call of academia to bring both themes, VCC as well as SDL, into the empirical arena. It explores the organization at research level and investigates the adoption of and the readiness for VCC and SDL in the automation sector. This is accomplished through a mixed methods approach, combining first a broad and global quantitative survey with 274 participants followed by interviews with 13 participants out of the investigated automation sector. The outcomes are visualized in a conceptual framework that was developed for the adoption of and readiness for VCC and SDL. The framework contains “Enablers” and “Disablers” that were identified and that influence the adoption of VCC and SDL. Out of those, “Years of Experience” act as “Enabler” for both, VCC and SDL. Additionally, some regional, organizational and functional dimensions were revealed that act as “Enablers” and “Disablers” for both, adoption of and readiness for VCC and SDL. The conceptual framework also contains external conditions such as competitive environment, new technologies, global view and empowered customers that influence the adoption of VCC. Furthermore, the research results show readiness for VCC, however certain change readiness elements need to be considered such as top management support, leadership support and corporate culture. The research reported in this thesis provides empirical support for an important feature of the SDL – that of prediction and positive correlation with VCC. For both themes an exploratory factor analysis was performed that revealed the requirement of the DART (Dialogue, Access, Risk assessment, Transparency) model for the adoption of VCC and the PSC (Product-Service Continuum) for the adoption of SDL. The research has also limitations. Generalization beyond the scope of the automation market population must be performed cautiously. Other limitations include a regional focus on Germany, Europe Middle East Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific (APAC) and USA without considering any other countries within the regions. These shortcomings serve as point of departure to present some potential future research streams.