Strategic Development of Product-Service Systems (PSS) through Archetype Assessment

Product-service systems (PSS) enable product-oriented manufacturing companies to differentiate their offerings and become more competitive, while creating more value for customers along with improved economic performance and, in some cases, reduced environmental impact. However, PSS development remains difficult for manufacturing companies due to limited prior knowledge about PSS and the strategic characteristics it entails.

To guide the PSS development process, this paper presents a prescriptive approach composed of a tool and a method based on the use of PSS archetypes in the initial development stages of new PSS business models (BM). The proposed tool builds upon three PSS archetypes, combined with 10 factors for assessment of the best suiting archetype.

The proposed method and supporting tool guide companies in five steps, from the beginning of a servitisation process to the initial PSS development. Based on an evaluation with a Danish manufacturing company, an improved version of the method and tool was developed and applied with 60 students specialised in PSS development.

Results from the evaluation indicate that the method and tool support scoping new PSS BM through the selection and modification of a PSS archetype, encouraging servitisation and PSS development in companies with different levels of PSS experience.