Marco Paiola

University of Padua | UNIPD · Department of Economics and Management

Several studies on digital servitization strategies emphasize that their implementation is closely linked to some form of business model innovation. To undertake these innovation projects, firms must expand their internal knowledge and capabilities while also leveraging external organizations that support them on their servitization journey. Howeve...

Framing of the research. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (I4.0) is dramatically affecting firms' strategies, disrupting their business models. In particular, a bunch of digital technologies like IoT (Internet of Things), cloud platforms, big data, artificial intelligence and data analysis are offering firms the possibility to manage products funct...

Purpose This study aims to investigate the contribution of knowledge-intensive business services firms to small- and medium-sized manufacturers’ digital servitization journeys, addressing the standardization versus customization dichotomy of services and solutions provision. Design/methodology/approach To identify the challenges that small- and me...

The present article contributes to the theory of Business Model Innovation by incumbent firms via digital servitization. Our research explores the conditions affecting manufacturers' ability to innovate their business models by developing and supplying advanced, digitally-based services. The authors performed a Qualitative Comparative Analysis via...

Industry 4.0 is dramatically affecting firms' strategies. In particular, technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) are offering firms the possibility to manage product functions, remotely and globally, enabling the design of innovative business models. The aim of the article is to investigate how incumbent small and medium enterprises can mana...

Over the last few years digital servitization has become a very popular topic in the industrial marketing and technology management literature. The present article contributes to the extant literature on business models for digital servitization by investigating the roles and effects of prior technological knowledge. To date, this rich and growing...

In the last few years, the widespread of digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things, in manufacturing industries and servitization became so strong that, recently, a growing research stream has begun to focus on how digital technologies enable service development, ushering in digital servitization as a specific research stream. Notwithsta...

Technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) are offering new opportunities and posing serious challenges to firms, forcing them to create entirely new business models, migrating from the conventional product-centric approaches to (digitally-based) service-oriented ones. This paper – following a qualitative research method – aims at describing th...

Purpose Industry 4.0 is dramatically affecting businesses behaviours and strategies, transforming products design, manufacture, operations and services. An outcome of this transformation is digital servitization. This paper aims to contribute to the extant literature about digital servitization in B2B contexts by analysing how I4.0-based servitizat...

For over three decades now, several product companies around the world have been undertaking servitization paths. They have been devoting growing and substantial efforts to expand their service business. Expanding the service business in addition to their traditional core product business secures long-term growth and strengthens competitive advanta...

This study draws on an extensive survey and interview data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The respondents were executives of industrials firms whose factories, warehouses, and headquarters are located in Northern Italy. This is undoubtedly the European region first and most extensively affected by the pandemic, and the government implement...

Purpose This paper aims to categorise the approaches to knowledge management (KM) by companies. In the literature, there is no consensus on a universal or “best” approach to KM. Especially, this paper singles out and discusses the variegated features that characterise the implementation of KM by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) having dif...

Structured Abstract Purpose-There is evidence that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) do not manage knowledge the same way as large firms, and that they approach knowledge management (KM) in various ways. However, the literature on this topic is still scarce and fragmented. In order to fill this gap, the paper aims to single out and discuss...

Literature has recently reminded the importance of Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) as knowledge intermediators and innovators facilitators (Shearmur and Doloreux, 2018), renovating a school of thought that has gained a acknowledged positioning in the KIBS literature. It's equally recent the profound change facing manufacturing companie...

Recently, digital transformation is posing a serious challenge to manufacturers. Technologies like the Internet of Things (IOT) are forcing firms to create entirely new business models, migrating from the product-centric approaches to (digitally-based) service-oriented ones. This paper-following a qualitative research method-aims at describing the...

Several industries are nowadays facing a big challenge: digitalization. The Internet of Things (IOT), data-driven smart products and services and technologies alike are forcing organizations to create entirely new business models, migrating from product-centric to (digitally-based) service-oriented approaches. This paper-following a qualitative res...

Connected products are transforming both business and consumer markets landscapes, making space for brand new data‐based service‐oriented business models, transforming and disrupting traditional strategic approaches. In fact, technologies like the Internet of Things (IOT and IIOT), the cloud and (big) data analysis are forcing firms to create entir...

Purpose: Servitization has presented a series of persistent shortcomings for manufacturing companies that have dramatically slowed down its adoption. Recently, technologies like the Internet of Things (IOT) are forcing firms to create entirely new business models, migrating from the product-centric approaches to (digitally-based) service-oriented o...

This presentation deals with the relation between digitization and service based business models, in other words with digital servitization. I am studying the impact of IOT/IIOT, big data and cloud computing on manufacturing SMEs’ business models. The role of firms’ ecosystems and in particular the position in the value chain, along with the nature...

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to perform a preliminary analysis concerning the detection and examination of two possible opposite approaches to KM planning which will be referred to as deliberate and emergent KM strategies. The goal is to enhance our understanding of the variety of features KM strategies possess and, accordingly, to formulate...

The paper analyses the activity of research for “innovation knowledge”—here defined as knowledge that can lead to the introduction of service innovations—by Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) companies. It proposes a classification of the possible search approaches adopted by those companies based on two dimensions: the pro-activity of se...

Purpose – The paper analyzes the patterns of research of “innovation knowledge” (i.e. knowledge that can result in introducing innovations in the company that can be observed in KIBS (Knowledge-Intensive Business Services) companies. Particularly, it identifies and classifies the possible approaches adopted by companies on the basis of two dimensio...

The debate on managerial approaches and public policies that fit Knowledge‐Intensive Business Services (KIBS) firms is yet ongoing. A possible problem is that, while this sector is highly heterogeneous, most scholars still base their investigations on traditional sectorial classifications, like e.g. NACE, that may fail in providing consistent infor...

The debate on managerial approaches and public policies that fit knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms is ongoing. A possible problem is that, while this sector is highly heterogeneous, most scholars still base their investigations on traditional sectorial classifications, like, e.g., NACE, that may fail in providing consistent informa...

Recientemente se ha incrementado la atención sobre el turismo cultural y el impacto que tiene sobre los territorios urbanos (Richards 1996, 2005; McKercher and Du Cros, 2002; Mommaas 2004). De forma particular, este tipo de eventos ofrecen a las ciudades importantes oportunidades para apoyar actividades culturales, activar el entorno local, mejorar...

The move being made by manufacturers of capital goods from offering products to solutions implies that they must make a decision as to whether the capabilities necessary for providing solutions should be developed internally or externally. However, research has often implied an internal capability development option, and focused mostly on multinati...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue of knowledge protection in knowledge‐intensive business services (KIBS). In particular, it addresses four research questions: do KIBS firms perceive the necessity to protect their knowledge? If so, do they protect it? What method (or combinations of methods) they typically use? What are the...

In the current economy, individual firms cannot possess all the knowledge that is necessary to compete. Hence, networking relationships become an important way through which firms can develop their potential by accessing to resources of other players. However, the networking strategies that companies implement can vary depending on the nature of th...

Purpose: This article explores service business development by small- and medium-sized equipment manufacturers (SMEMs). It focuses on underlying dynamic and operational capabilities in service business development.Design/Methodology/Approach: The research design is based on case study research with nine companies from Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Sw...

It is widely accepted among scholars that knowledge has become a fundamental source of competitive advantage for firms. Learning and innovation are therefore among the main factors of global competitiveness for firms and industries. Quoting Lundvall and Borrás (1997, p. 28): “globalisation has not only increased market competition, but also transfo...

Literature on innovation and recent marketing contributions stressed the involvement of consumers in the co-production of value, by emphasizing either the role of a single consumer or the community in such process. Few studies coupled the two interrelated dimensions and analyzed their impacts on customersÕ behavior and firm marketing strategies, sp...

This paper investigates the issue of adoption and use of Knowledge Management (KM) practices by Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) companies, i.e. private companies whose job consists of collecting, generating, analysing, and distributing knowledge with the purpose of developing customized services or solutions to satisfy the needs of bus...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on how small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) from the capital goods manufacturing sector develop the service business. Assuming the service business development depends on contingency factors, the paper aims to explore how SMEs align external environment, strategy and organizational design. Design...

Purpose Service‐dominant (S‐D) logic and service science provide a conceptual framework to describe evolutionary pathways that companies could follow by innovating in order to overcome and rethink traditional and non‐productive ways of managing their businesses. The purpose of this paper is to explore service innovation. Design/methodology/approac...

Come le imprese italiane possono uscire dalla crisi? 24 aziende, manifatturiere e di servizi, grandi, medie e piccole indicano con il loro esempio 4 percorsi possibili. I casi, presentati diffusamente, sono le bussole, che possoono aiutare altre imprese a percorrere creativamente e con successo cammini già tracciati ma meno battuti.

In this paper the relational dimension of cultural production is explored, with explicit attention to the impact of cultural events on networks and creativity in local contexts. Three qualitative empirical cases are produced, showing that networks have a crucial importance in sustaining spatial proximity-based creativity. Three models of local cult...

Innovation networks are emerging as a solution that allows the firms to cope with the complexity and turbulence of today s technological and market environment. In a perspective of open innovation , the capability to grasp fresh knowledge from a wide range of external sources becomes essential for the companies. This paper explores the importance o...

Cultural activities are increasingly regarded as pr ecious resources for the creation of sustainable economic value in regional areas. Following an in-d epth qualitative approach, we investigate the organization of cultural events in several mid-size Italian cities in order to show how complex networks operate in this sector. In this contribution w...

In recent years, the competitive edge has changed in many businesses. In our paper we point out two main causes of this evolution: significant modifications, concerning the characteristics of demand and the way the critical resource "knowledge" can be shared among operators, force companies to adopt a proactive approach in order to redefine the bus...

Services are now facing the challenges of knowledge economy: in this work we describe the historical evolution of the concept of "service" through the relevant steps and breakthrough points of the transformation process shown by the tertiary sector. Furthermore, we identify some critical passages that led to the so called "neo-industrial" and "neos...