The Webinar discussed the paper from the Alliance, where the authors study the industry conditions that prompt product firms to offer services, distinguishing between services performed on products (product-oriented) and services that go beyond product to support broader customer needs (customer-oriented). The authors theorize and provide empirical evidence that product firms are likely to offer product-oriented services when industry conditions favour the deepening of product knowledge and to offer customer-oriented services when industry conditions reward the broadening of firms’ knowledge base. Analysis of 410 public firms from 1990 to 2011 demonstrates that firms are more likely to offer product-oriented services in the early stage of the industry lifecycle and/or under conditions of high R&D intensity and competition, while they tend to offer customer-oriented services in the mature stage of the industry lifecycle and/or highly cyclical industries.
Webinar I Presentation I Paper