Digital servitization journey: multi-level perspective to operational changes

Many manufacturers invest in digital technologies to advance servitization, referred to as digital servitization (DS). This transition has often been considered as a strategic change and treated as a trial-and-error journey at the operational level. There is a need to consider the operational transition process as the focal phenomenon. This paper addresses this research gap by investigating operational changes in the process of DS. An exploratory study was conducted based on interviews with 14 managers from ten manufacturers. The findings characterize DS journey in manufacturers in three phases (emerge, start-up, and evolve) and levels (network, organizational, and individual levels).