Unpacking the mechanism linking digital servitization and manufacturing firm performance: the role of the service networks and slack resources
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
ISSN: 0885-8624
Article publication date: 5 July 2023
Issue publication date: 13 February 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to disentangle the mechanism linking digital servitization and manufacturing firm performance. The contributions of the service networks and slack resources are analyzed.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on a survey of manufacturing firms that have implemented or are implementing digital service projects in China, this paper examines the mediation effect of service networks and the moderated mediation effect of slack resources to capture the role of service networks and slack resources in the relationship between digital servitization and manufacturing firm performance.
Findings
Both basic and advanced digital services can equally contribute to manufacturing firm performance. Service networks mediate the relationship between basic digital servitization and manufacturing firm performance. No moderated mediation effect of slack resources is found, but slack resources negatively moderate the effects of basic digital services on service networks and positively impact service networks.
Originality/value
The mediating mechanism of service networks in the relationship between digital servitization and manufacturing firm performance is theorized, and it is clarified that service networks mediate the association between basic digital services and manufacturing firm performance but not advanced digital services. Additionally, there is no significant difference in performance implications when manufacturing firms provide basic versus advanced digital services, answering the call for research on the various types of digital servitization. This paper also identifies firms’ slack resources as the boundary conditions under which basic digital services influence service networks and the positive impacts of slack resources on service networks, bridging the network literature, organizational slack literature and digitalization literature under the framework of service ecosystem research.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper is supported by Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project (20NDJC090YB). This research was also supported by the Major Humanities and Social Sciences Project in Colleges and Universities of Zhejiang Province of China (2021QN040). Besides, the Leading Talent Cultivation Project for Social Science Planning in Zhejiang Province (No. 22YJRC09ZD-2YB) and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. LY23G020002 also provide support. The authors express their gratitude for the above financial supports, and the authors also thank anonymous reviewers and editors who gave constructive suggestions.
Conflict of interest: On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Citation
Zhou, D., Wu, Q., Lee, S., Li, X., Sun, K. and Peng, X. (2024), "Unpacking the mechanism linking digital servitization and manufacturing firm performance: the role of the service networks and slack resources", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 189-205. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-07-2022-0308
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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