Paul Matthyssens

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca and University of Antwerp · Economics Management & Statistics

Increasingly, digital platforms connect suppliers, customers, and other ecosystem parties, facilitating the introduction of various Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings. This study examines the co-evolution of actor engagement (AE), reflecting actors’ dispositions to invest resources in interactions, and value co-creation (VCC), demonstrated thro...

Industry 4.0 technology is changing the way manufacturing companies create value. Transactional interactions with supply chain partners are evolving towards long-term relationships with a network of strategic partners necessary to realise digitally enabled value propositions. The Delphi method has been used to let academics, industry experts, and p...

This study aims to investigate the impact of an institutionalized market context on platform ecosystem development. It studies how platform ecosystems are set up and evolve in the asset management industry and explores the role of the platform leader and selected core network partners in unleashing value innovation notwithstanding institutional bar...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical lens on digital servitization (DS) for future research purposes. By developing a multilevel framework that helps structure and untangle its complexity, the authors aim to increase understanding into the persistent challenge of DS. Design/methodology/approach Building on a problematizati...

User expectations regarding new products and services are evolving rapidly, forcing innovative organizations to explore new avenues for innovation, combining products and services. This paper focuses on the integrative design of product–service systems (PSSs) and builds on the servitization and service-based innovation literature. Many tools have b...

Digitization is receiving a lot of interest in recent servitization research, but the use of platform-based Industry 4.0 technologies to boost product-service innovation (PSI) is less covered. This study aims to explore how companies successfully leverage platforms for servitization in an Industry 4.0 context. Building on theories of PSI, platform...

In the current fast-changing and digitalizing world, ever more firms active in traditional industries are transforming themselves into 'Smart Factories'. Within their value chains, manufacturers are shifting from working at arm's length with other firms, to creating integrated platforms. These are composed of co-creating and collaborating actors. E...

We address the lack of studies focusing on internal organizational sponsorship mechanisms, while considering environmental influencers and focus on a specific type of organizational sponsorship to do so: Business incubators. We argue that to be able to offer a customized incubatee-strengthening service pack, incubator-incubatee interaction is key,...

Despite the increased interest in using digital technologies for servitization purposes, little is known about what drives firms towards a digital servitization strategy. Using a dynamic capabilities lens, we look into the relationships between two organizational mechanisms – exploitation and exploration – and firms' orientation towards digitizatio...

This research paper describes the transition to integrate products and services into systems and contributes to a broader understanding of the research field PSS design as an emerging area and phenomenon. Ensuing a synthesis approach, we outline different organizational drivers that emerge from the transition toward PSS as innovation strategy. Base...

Industry 4.0 and the IIoT (Industry Internet of Things) are prevailing trends that influence nearly all industries, including the 'low-tech' textile industry. The purpose of this article is to explore what co-creation practices manufacturers use to exploit the opportunity of platforms in an Industry 4.0/IIoT context. It also intends to identify the...

Purpose Starting from the foundations of value innovation, this paper aims to give an idea of the key drivers and barriers – internal and external to the company – and to provide insight into proven capabilities underscoring the ability to create a flow of new value initiatives. These thoughts are then confronted with the present challenges of Indu...

In many organizations, the role of purchasing is in a transition from a reactive order taker, into a proactive and internally integrated business partner. Building on a Resource-Based View and Capability-Based View, this study explores how purchasing professionals' involvement and proactive efforts in sourcing processes affect sourcing project outc...

This chapter introduces a tool to measure and assess a firm’s capacity for servitization. The instrument consists of 48 statements covering three organizational factors that play a crucial role in the successful transition toward services: (1) capabilities for service development, (2) capabilities for service deployment and (3) the service orientat...

Purpose: Our aim is to investigate the relationship between product-service integration (PSI) and firm performance, considering the role of exploration and exploitation as potential moderators and the influence of the environment as different contingencies. Methodology: We matched survey and company performance data for a sample of 99 mostly medium...

This paper tells the story of a thought experiment on deliberate network mobilization to advance radical innovation adoption in health care. The health care industry is said to experience a personalized medicine (PM) revolution, driven by simultaneous thrusts toward cost-effectiveness and new patient-value-centered advances in targeted treatment, d...

Manufacturing companies that venture into servitisation can experience difficulties when upscaling product-service systems (PSS) for further growth. This research study has two main objectives: first, to develop insight into the internal levers to increase firms’ servitisation capacity, and second, to apply a new methodology to support companies in...

This research paper describes the transition to integrate products and services into systems and contributes to a broader understanding of the research field PSS design as an emerging area and phenomenon. Ensuing a synthesis approach, we outline different organizational drivers that emerge from the transition toward PSS as innovation strategy. Base...

Purpose: Manufacturers experience difficulty to move successfully towards offering PSS, yet the majority of methodologies emphasize the development of new services without considering the capacity of the company to extend into the service business. The aim of this study is to develop a framework that can be used as a diagnostic tool by both researc...

As in many organizations the role of the purchasing department is shifting from a clerical buying function to an internally integrated, strategic business function, purchasing professionals are increasingly involved in sourcing projects. Building on Social Exchange Theory, this study explores the effects of early purchasing involvement on internal...

The importance of digital technologies for services in manufacturing has often been posited, but current literature has neglected to explain how companies can leverage digital methods to increase their service offering. In this article we contribute to current theory by examining how digitization can enable servitization for manufacturers. By perfo...

PurposeThe discussion about public sector performance is still present today, despite the profound research that has already tried to address this subject. Furthermore, theory links negative effects on organizational performance with increased levels of organizational complexity. However, literature thus far did not succeed to put forward a success...

Firms are continually relying on external sources to be innovative (Inemek and Matthyssens 2010). The open innovation approach is the logical answer to this development. Associated with a high performance in the outside-in process of open innovation, firms need to build up internal and external absorptive capability routines (Lewin et al. 2011). Ho...

This work-in-progress paper aims to develop insight in the organizational levers for servitization by small and medium-sized manufacturers. After a general introduction to servitization, its drivers and challenges, we pinpoint and discuss four potential internal levers for manufacturers: network capabilities, digital systems, service climate and or...

Purpose – This paper aims to apply innovation networks (INs) theory to the context of domesticated markets, where innovation triggers deinstitutionalization. In such contexts, the success of INs depends on their capacity to transform the business field in which they are embedded, so that it accommodates innovative business models. Such “institution...

This paper develops a soft power model to enable non-elite institutional entrepreneurs to fundamentally reshape their field. Based on a Judo strategy framework, this model integrates previously suggested soft power tactics into a coherent set of principles. More specifically, it explains how previous soft power insights adhere to underlying princip...

Advances in digital technologies enable manufacturers to offer better services, yet current literature has neglected to link both topics on a more strategic level. The purpose of this paper is to find how digitization can help companies enhance servitization. Additionally, we pay attention to the enablers and inhibitors when implementing new techno...

Non-profit organisations, such as economic development incubators, may adapt the balanced scorecard and strategy map in their efforts to improve their internal functioning. In this paper, we employ qualitative research among non-profit economic development incubators in Antwerp, Belgium, to modify these tools. By adapting these frameworks, we exten...

The purpose of this paper is organizing mindfully for relevant process research on strategic change. This essay arises from an increasing concern that our understanding of strategic change is not delivering meaningful, relevant and true process wisdom that allows researchers to enrich their academic discourse and practitioners to effectively realiz...

Sustainability is high on corporate agendas as part of a corporate social responsibility approach. In the area of purchasing, the building of green supply chains becomes a key priority. However, this topic is still under-researched. This chapter intends to help filling this gap by confronting suppliers’ efforts to augment their offerings with ‘gree...

Prevailing studies have demonstrated the importance of learning for an organization's innovation outcome. Both strategic management and strategic marketing theories have stressed the importance of continuously reinventing business models and creating new customer value. We extend these views by focusing on the impact of deliberate learning mechanis...

Organizational ambidexterity, or the combination of exploratory and exploitative organizational behavior, is believed to be a key precursor for long-term organizational success. In this study, we explore the impact of the composition of the top management team (TMT), in particular the heterogeneity in the TMT members' knowledge bases (i.e., TMT kno...

We report the findings of an embedded case study in Belgian healthcare, building on rich data from 28 in-depth interviews and 2 focus groups, which describes the introduction of personalized medicine. The study elaborates a value systems perspective on stakeholder management emerging in stakeholder theory, relationship marketing and recent work in...

In this paper we try to upgrade the explanatory power of internationalization process theory without refuting the fundamental logic of the classic Uppsala model. Therefore, we focus on the conceptualization of market knowledge, market commitment and organizational learning and bring it in line with theoretical progress on these constructs over rece...

Although marketing scholars have emphasized both the importance of internal learning mechanisms and of external learning through supply chain partners research findings on how these factors influence each other are merely lacking. Analyzing survey data of 182 industrial firms, we examine how information provision by upstream and downstream supply c...

The aim of this paper is to identify which managerial practices are required to achieve perceived fairness. The paper is based on a literature review and a dyadic case study on an innovative development project. The analysis shows how perceived fairness can be stimulated by managerial practices. It emphasizes the importance of attending to the mult...

a model of value addition and value innovation

Recently, academics have attributed a large part of alliance success to a firm's ability to successfully manage its alliances, also called its level of alliance management capability. We contribute to this growing body of literature by (1) verifying the impact of alliance management capability on alliance performance and (2) analyzing the drivers o...

Manuscript Type: EmpiricalResearch Question/Issue: We study the relationship between informal rules (represented by social norms and social cohesion in a community) and corporate governance. A community is a large social unit characterized by a distinct set of informal rules. Specifically, three hypotheses are tested: (1) Communities with stronger...

Past research indicates that the effect of TMT functional diversity on firm performance is equivocal. We address this issue by focusing on the integrative role of the CEO, postulating that the CEO's expertise and background characteristics affect the TMT functional diversity–firm performance relationship, because of their impact on the exchange and...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how manufacturers evolve when aiming at increasing customer value via the service addition path. More specifically, it aims to identify drivers and inhibitors as well as trajectories to reach “ideal” service addition types. Design/methodology/approach – This paper employs a multiple case study design....

This paper has a threefold purpose. First, we offer a literature review on alliance capability based on strategic and competence-based management literature. Second, we extend existing literature on alliance capability by breaking this concept down into five subcapabilities, each of which is linked to a stage of the alliance life cycle. Finally, we...

The lack of consideration of process dimensions of time in business marketing and management literature in general and in B2B case-based research in particular is in sharp contrast to the importance of time in our society. Marketing scholars need a stronger involvement of time to enrich case study research. This paper offers a structure and a set o...

Utilizing performance measurement theories, we critically examine performance measurement literature in the business incubator domain. Papers are identified and selected by examining peer-reviewed journals in entrepreneurship and small business research, publisher-independent databases, and an own literature review. Results are discussed both at th...

This article shows how subcontractors in the steel and metalworking industry can effectively upgrade their customer value offerings. The study intends to identify internal and external drivers for successful transitions. It builds on the IMP's (Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group) research tradition by looking into value creation and competen...

Structured abstract Purpose: To identify the motivations driving the process of changing sourcing strategy from single sourcing to multiple sourcing or vice versa. Methodology/approach: Ten cases of sourcing strategy change were investigated. A qualitative research method is used to uncover the richness of these change processes. Findings: Most of...

This paper has a threefold purpose. First, we offer a literature review on alliance capability based on strategic and competence based management literature. Second, we extend existing literature on alliance capability by breaking this concept down into five sub capabilities, which are each linked to a stage of the alliance life cycle. Finally, we...

Purpose – The purpose of this case study is to illustrate the difficulty of capturing value by an upstream supplier in a mature business market. The case shows how successful market introduction and value capturing, especially in the case of mature markets, are dependent on the dominant logic of the participants in the supply chain. Scholars can us...

Manufacturers increasingly seek new ways to add customer value and differentiate. However, in business markets such efforts often remain relatively unsuccessful, leading to a large number of services offered and higher costs, but with limited corresponding returns. Based on extensive expert interviews and case study research, this paper studies how...

Purpose The aim of the “viewpoint” part of this paper is to enhance discussion on the challenges global business‐to‐business (B2B) marketing is facing. More specifically, academics are stimulated to study the impact of these trends on the internationalization of B2B companies. Managers are urged to engage in open strategy conversations on the conse...

Commoditization erodes the competitive differentiation of companies and often leads to a profit squeeze. Existing literature recommends the transition from basic product offerings to service-based value concepts in order to regain competitiveness in such a context. This paper explores the concrete efforts of suppliers in the commoditized electro-te...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify, review and evaluate international marketing (IM) studies in the domain of cultural country classification (1985‐2006). Design/methodology/approach First, articles in which an “original” classification is developed are identified. Then, the paper characteristics are summarized using Ronen and Shenka...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on how new value creation can be driven by value innovation. It aims to study the process of value innovation within the functional foods industry, one of the fastest‐growing segments of the food industry. The paper seeks to highlight value innovation efforts by ingredient suppliers in the functional fo...

See abstract in Journal article

Lange tijd heeft business-to-business marketing een weinig in het oog springende plaats ingenomen. De aandacht was grotendeels gericht op de consumentenmarketing. De laatste jaren evenwel hebben industriële ondernemingen hun marketingafdelingen slagvaardiger gemaakt en hun strategieën bijgesteld. Marketeers onderkennen steeds vaker het belang van e...

SAMENVATTING De integratie van marketing en andere disciplines krijgt de laatste jaren steeds meer aandacht. In de industrinle marketing is het vooral de integratie van techniek en marketing die ruime belang-stelling verdient. In deze bijdrage rapporteren de auteurs een exploratief onderzoek dat in opdracht van de Stichting Techniek en Marketing (S...

Delokaliseringsbeslissingen van multinationals hebben een grote impact op de werkgelegenheid in de getroffen landen en regio's. Dit artikel tracht besluiten rond de sluiting c.q. afbouw van(buitenlandse) productievestigingen van multinationals te doorgronden. De auteurs stoelen hun verklarend model op een netwerkperspectief op multinationale ondern...

Dit boek van de Nederlandse Stichting Techniek en Marketing wil inzicht verschaffen in de wijze waarop de marketingfunctie kan bijdragen in de groei van de onderneming. Waardecreatie en meer specifiek de creatie van klantenwaarde is niet meer weg te denken uit het jargon van de industriële marketeer. Ondernemingen in businessmarkten hebben sinds de...