Organizational Learning,Routine Revolution And Servitization Of Small And Medium Sized Manufacturing Enterprises

Servitization of manufacturing is a major trend in the development of today’s manufacturing industry.More and more manufacturing companies have begun to implement servitization strategies and develop high value-added service,providing customers with complete solutions to better satisfy their personalized needs.The phenomenon of servitization of manufacturing enterprises has aroused widespread concern in the academic area.However,there are few studies which focus on the micro mechanism of servitization of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies.Most of existing studies focus on the macro level of the servitization of large manufacturing enterprises.Therefore,we take Shandong Sinolion as an example and analyze the service transformation of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises,and explore the micro mechanism of servitization.As the cornerstone of the whole study,I made a literature review based on servitization of manufacturing theory,the evolution of routine theory and organizational learning theory and discussed their relationship,then proposed the research framework.I took Shandong Sinolion as a single case and collected a large number of first-hand and second-hand materials,the I used the grounded theory to code the text data.So I could analyze the transformation process of Shandong Sinolion and figure out the mechanism of how organizational learning and routine evolution influence the transformation process.Through our research,it has been found that the servitization of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises has improvisational characteristics:the servicing process experienced a transition from unconsciousness to consciousness,and during the transition process the customer’s needs,the enterprise’s competence,and national policies played a major role.In the process of servicing transition for small and medium-sized manufacturing companies,the phased characteristic is obvious.The first stage is product manufacturers,and the enterprises are mainly manufacturing and selling the products.The second stage is added-value service providers,and the enterprises combine their products with a series of value-added services.The third stage is solution providers,in this stage,the enterprises provide the customers with customized solutions.The entire servicing process is based on products.The three stages of servitization correspond to three types of organizational learning and organizational routines.In the product manufacturer stage,the imitative organizational learning promoted the formulation of the basic service routines.In the stage of value-added service providers,communication-based organizational learning promoted theformulation of value-added service routines.In the solution provider stage,self-organizational learning promoted the formulation of solutions routines.In the process of service transformation,organizational learning promotes the evolution of organizational routines and forms new organizational routines through variation,selection,replication and retention.The interaction between organizational routines and organizational routines promotes the servitization of manufacturing enterprises.Basing on the above analysis,I summarized the service transformation model ofsmall and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises based on the role of organizational learning and customary evolution,and draw the conclusion of the research,and extended the research of service transformation to the micro level and enriched the theory of servitization.In the end,I summarized the theoretical contribution,limitations and future prospects of this study.I also gave suggestions for enterprises and senior managers to help the small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises to carry out the servitization effectively.