| Manufacturing servitization has become an imperative strategic option for Chinese manufacturing firms to escape from the extensive pattern of economic growth with high level of energy-consumption,low level of efficiency and low level of added-values;it is also a rational strategy for Chinese manufacturers to appropriate profits from both ends of the “smile curve”.Manufacturing servitization means that the manufacturers have to jump out of the box of the thinking mode of “service as a cost”,and transform the ways of thinking from regarding services as a complementary to product quality to regarding it as source of competitive advantage achieved by product differentiation,and eventually to regarding services as an important source of firm profits.This transformation process is not only related to the resource coordination and integration issues involved in the internal introduction and penetration process of service awareness and service culture internal to the firms,but is also related to practical measures such as establishing independent service department,training of service staff on client-relationship management and related professional techniques,acquiring certain assets such as professional technical equipment,obtaining of patents and certifications,as well as the promotion of international service provision.With the deepening of the servitization progress,the services provided by the manufacturing firms are not only limited to fundamental SSPs(services supporting the products)such as repair and maintenance,technological consultation,remote monitoring and control,etc.,but also include higher-end SSCs(services supporting the clients)such as integrated solution providing,large-scale/mega-and complicated project contracting,and large-scale service project operations,etc..This high-end service-provision cannot be achieved without highly-efficient integration and coordination of various resources of the firms,nor will it be achieved without high-level of service innovation capability.However,different from the developed nations,China’s manufacturing industry is faced with the situation of “weak manufacturing capabilities and weak service capabilities”.With the great shocks brought about by the last financial crisis to the market,especially to the client’s preference,coupled with the occurrence of a large number of new high-techs such as the big-data,cloud computing,AI,internet-of-things,etc.,it has become an imperative problem to be resolved as to choosing the right way of implementing the servitization strategy under the specific “market/technology dual-turbulent environment” for Chinese manufacturers to constructing strong service innovation capability more effectively.The extant researches have shown that resources are the foundation of a firm’s competitive advantage,the uneven distribution and the limited liquidation of resources among firms constitutes the heterogeneity of resources through which different levels of firm performances are determined.The formulation process of a firm’s innovation strategies should be based on the existing basis of resources and capabilities of the firm.The transformation process of manufacturing servitization is the process through which manufacturing firms execute their service strategies;it is a strategic transformation process implemented by manufacturers in order to conquer the challenges brought by product homogeneity and diminishing marginal profits.This process is involved with the transfer of focus from products to clients,the coordination and integration of resources in traditional manufacturing sectors and resources in emerging service sectors,which requires the manufacturers to implement new forms of organization and modes of resource integration so to realize the provision of innovative services such as life-cycle solutions.The formation of service innovation capability of manufacturing firms is the process through which manufacturers integrate and utilize its various resources including knowledge and technical skills in order to realize different kinds of technological innovation(including those in products,service and product/service procedures)and none-technological innovation(including those in marketing and management procedures).Therefore,the level of resource endowment of the firm will influence the level of service innovation capability thus attained.In fact,the root of weakness in both manufacturing and service capabilities of Chinese manufacturing firms lies in the limited competitiveness of their resources,improper resource structures,and inappropriate coordination and integration of resources by the firm managers,as well as the path-dependency towards traditional manufacturing modes;all these will lead to the superficial development,difficulties or even failure of servitization progress in China.Thus,taking resources as the starting point,this paper attempts to explore the formation mechanism of service innovation capability of Chinese manufacturing firms when they are implementing the transformation strategy of servitization.In this way,constructive managerial implications can be concluded based on analyzing resources as the rooting source of competitive advantages.Based on the background above,the literature review finds out that there are many current studies existing as to the topic of service innovation performance or service innovation capability of manufacturing firms based on resource theories.However,the extant studies generally analyze the direct impact of resource foundation towards the firm’s service innovation performance or service innovation capability;rarely do some studies attempt deeper exploration as to the mechanism between the resource structure of a manufacturing firm and its resulting service innovation capability.The black box of internal mechanism as of the construction of service innovation capability through the basis of resources has not yet been popped open.In addition,there also lacks studies as to the contextual factors influencing the formation of service innovation capability;still there is lack of empirical studies in this field.In light of this,this paper takes a systematic perspective by integrating insights of RBV(the resource-based view),resource management theories and contingent theories,to explore the basic issue of “how Chinese manufacturing firms form their service innovation capability based on their resource structures under turbulent environment”.By integrating such scientific research methods as theoretical exploitation,field investigation,interviews of management staff and questionnaire tests,this paper attempts to achieve an in-depth exploration of the important influence that a manufacturer’s resource structure has on the formation of its service innovation capability.In order to reveal the internal mechanism,this paper introduces a mediating parameter of servitization resource integration and constructs an overall theoretical framework of “resource structure--servitization resource integration—service innovation capability” of manufacturing firms.Through applying scientific research methods such as theoretical study,explorative case study,and large-sample statistical analysis,as well the statistical analytical software of SPSS20.0,this paper realizes the integration of qualitative and quantitative studies and analyzes the following three main research questions step by step:(1)what is the influence mechanism of a manufacturer’s resource structure on the formation of its service innovation capability?(2)What is the internal mechanism between a manufacturer’s resource structure and its service innovation capability? What is the mediating factor in between?(3)During the process of forming service innovation capability based on the resource structure,what major contextual factors will a manufacturer undergo? In order to answer these questions,this paper develops its analytical process with the parts as follows.(1)Literature review and theoretical development.By reviewing literatures in related fields such as the RBV,resource management theories and contingency theory,this paper goes through the theoretical vein related to is theoretical framework and clarifies the concepts,implications and dimensions of key parameters such as the resource structure,servitization resource integration,service innovation capability,environment turbulence and strategic coordinating flexibility so as to lay a solid theoretical foundation for the construction of the theoretical framework.(2)Explorative case study and development of theoretical framework.This paper selected 3 typical firms with relatively mature experience in manufacturing servitization to conduct the explorative case study.By following such scientific research steps as putting forward the preliminary theoretical framework,selecting typical case firms,collecting investigation data,carrying on in-case and cross-case data analyses,this paper explores the influence of resource structure characteristics of manufacturing firms on the formation of its service innovation capability,the mediating role that servitization resource integration plays within the above mechanism,as well as the moderating role that both the environment turbulence and strategic coordinating flexibility play.Thus,this paper forms a preliminary research framework and theoretical insights from firm practice as regard to the formation mechanism of service innovation capability of manufacturing firms under turbulent environment.(3)The theoretical development and empirical study of formation mechanism of service innovation capability of manufacturing firms under turbulent environment.Based on the propositions put forward through the explorative case study and the in-depth theoretical discussion of extant literatures,this paper further constructs the conceptual model of formation mechanism of service innovation capability of manufacturing firms under turbulent environment.Also,a series of detailed hypotheses are proposed as regard to the influence mechanism of the resource structure of a manufacturing firm on the formation of its service innovation capability.Subsequently,through a questionnaire study on more than 300 manufacturing firms,a total of 333 effective questionnaire was collected after which a series of quantitative statistical methods are employed such as statistical analysis,testing of validity and reliability,factor analysis,hierarchy regression analysis,etc..In this way,an in-depth empirical analysis is carried out to test the theoretical framework and hypotheses of this paper;eventually,related conclusions are made as regard to the formation mechanism of service innovation capability of manufacturing firms under turbulent environments.Based on the above analysis,this paper has reached the following research conclusions.The resource structure of the manufacturing firm has a positive influence on the formation of its service innovation capability.Under the perspective of resource theories,the formulating process of a firm’s innovation strategy is based on its resources and capabilities;the transformation of manufacturing servitization is the process of executing service innovations strategies aiming at overcoming such realistic challenges as product homogeneity and diminishing marginal profits of product provision.This transformation process involves the transfer of product-centered focus to client-centered focus,and the coordination and integration of traditional manufacturing-oriented resources and emerging service-oriented resources,which requires the manufacturers to implement new forms of organization and new modes of resource integration in order to such innovative services such as life-cycle solutions.The formation of service innovation capability of the manufacturers is the process of integrating and utilization of various resources including knowledge and technical skills so as to achieve different kinds of technological innovations and none-technological innovations.Therefore,the level of resource endowment devoted into this process will influence the level of service innovation capability thus achieved.Based on the two fundament sources of“inimitability”(i.e.property barrier and knowledge barrier),this paper re-exams the resource structure of manufacturing firms by categorizing it into two dimensions of property-based resources and knowledge-based resources.All the hypotheses as regard to the positive influence of resource structure on service innovation capability have been empirically verified.(1)The resource structure of the manufacturing firm exerts its positive influence on service innovation capability through its impact on servitization resource integration.Resource integration is the process of bundling various resources in to resource bundles and exploiting the potential of these resource bundles so as to form specific capabilities required by the firm.Because of the inherently different natures of manufacturing and service sectors,confrontation of resources is an inevitable phenomenon.Therefore,in order to form service innovation capability through integration of such different resources,the manufacturing firms is required to properly allocate and integrate its property-based and knowledge-based resources.All the hypotheses proposed by this paper as regard to the mediating effect of servitization on the positive influence mechanism of resource structure on service innovation capability have been empirically verified.(3)Both the environment turbulence and strategic coordinating flexibility play important moderating role on the positive influence mechanism of resource structure on service innovation capability.On one hand,resource integration is the process of activating,combining and matching different kinds of resources in response to external environmental changes.During this process,environment turbulence,as an important contextual factor in the innovation research field,will change the values of a firm’s existing resources.Therefore,manufacturing firms undertaking servitization strategy should guarantee the matching of the structure and functions of their different resource portfolios with environmental factors under different contexts so as to construct heterogeneous service innovation capability.The empirical study of this paper has verified most of the hypotheses as regard to the negative moderating effect of environment turbulence on the positive influence mechanism of resource structure of servitization resource integration with major conclusions as follows: market turbulence will mitigate the positive influence of property-based resources on service consolidating resource integration;market turbulence will mitigate the positive influence of knowledge-based resources on service consolidating resource integration;market turbulence will mitigate the positive influence of property-based resources on service pioneering resource integration;market turbulence does not have a prominent mitigating effect on the positive influence of knowledge-based resources on service pioneering resource integration;technological turbulence will mitigate the positive influence of property-based resources on service consolidating resource integration;technological turbulence will mitigate the positive influence of knowledge-based resources on service consolidating resource integration;technological turbulence does not have a prominent mitigating effect on the positive influence of property-based resources on service pioneering resource integration;technological turbulence does not have a prominent mitigating effect on the positive influence of knowledge-based resources on service pioneering resource integration.Therefore,according to the results of the empirical study,environment turbulence has a general mitigating effect on the positive influence mechanism of a manufacturing firm’s resource structure on its servitization resource integration.On the other hand,it is imperative for manufacturing firms under servitization transformation to shift its innovative strategic focus from product-orientation to service-orientation and to ensure effective utilization of its resource portfolios under new market contexts through re-integrating its resources.This process cannot be realized without strategic adjustment in response to external environment dynamics through applying proper level of strategic coordinating flexibility.Neither will this process be realized without proper servitization resource integration aiming at upgrading the manufacturer’s service innovation capability.As an important coordinating capacity demonstrated in the process of indentify resource shortage,selecting and constructing resource chains,as well allocating and utilizing related resources,strategic coordinating flexibility of the manufacturer is conductive to realize effective matching of the firm’s internal resources and capabilities in production,technology and management with its external environmental factors,so as to enhance the positive influence of servitization resource integration on the firm’s service innovation capability.The empirical study of this paper has verified that strategic coordinating flexibility of the manufacturer has a positive moderating effect on the positive influence mechanism of service pioneering resource integration on the firm’s service innovation capability.As the same time,this paper also explores possible reasons as of the empirical result that strategic coordinating flexibility of the manufacturer does not have a prominent positive moderating effect on the positive influence mechanism of service consolidating resource integration on the firm’s service innovation capability.This paper has realized some level of innovation with its conclusions.Firstly,by taking the perspective of the two rooting causes of “inimitability”,i.e.property barrier and knowledge barrier,this paper re-examines the resource structure of manufacturers by dividing it into two dimensions of property-based resources and knowelge-based resources,based on which an empirical study is conducted to prove the positive influence of manufacturers’ resource structure on service innovation capability.In the meanwhile,this paper has opened the “black box” of the formation of manufactuerers’ service innovation capability based on resource structure through verifying the significant mediating effect that servitization resource integration has.Secondly,by introducing the two moderators of environment turbulence and strategic coordinating flexibility,this paper has integrated both the internal and external perspective to analyze the important contextual factors involved in the formation mechanism of service innovation capability of manufacturing firms.Specifically,this paper stresses the important role that service pioneering resource integration plays in resisting environmental turbulence during the servitization transformation process of manufacturing firms.Thirdly,in attempt to providing possible reasons to the hypothesis that did not withstand empirical tests as regard to the moderating effect of the strategic coordinating flexibility,this paper stresses two necessary premises for strategic coordinating flexibility to take effect,i.e.first,the resources that the firm possesses should have certain level of flexibility in the first place,and second,the level of strategic coordinating flexibility should be matched with the level of external environment turbulence.This research conclusion has emphasized that manufacturing firms should pay specific attention to the resource flexibility as well as the matching of its level of strategic flexibility with external environmental contexts,which has provided a more delicate and practical research angle for manufacturers attempting to shape its strategic flexibility in order to strengthen the promoting effect of resource integration on the formation of service innovation capability. |
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