Knowledge sharing and reuse in product-service systems with a product lifecycle perspective

Abstract

Contemporary phenomena such as sustainability, and emerging digital technologies and ecosystems shift the basis of competition from the functionality of a discrete product to the performance of the broader product system throughout the product lifecycle (PLC), and a single firm is only one of actors among many. With this trend, product-service systems (PSS) integrating bundles of products and services to create customer utility and generate value have become an emerging issue in both academia and industry, and have been identified as one of the most effective instruments for moving society towards sustainability. In the sustainability-oriented PSS scenario, the requirements of integrating diverse knowledge relating to economic, social and environmental considerations across the entire product lifecycle inherently makes knowledge and its management more crucial and challenging than ever. Identified as key processes for successful knowledge management, knowledge sharing and knowledge reuse have been investigated in research articles for decades. However, few studies examine them together, especially in the PSS context from a PLC perspective. Especially, when examining PLC beginning-of-life (BOL), middle-of-life (MOL), and end-of-life (EOL) phases, the existing studies have mainly focused on the BOL phase, and the studies on the MOL phase have not been comprehensive. In addition, the opportunities and challenges brought by digitalization transformation should be stressed as they have shaped the sharing and reuse behavior.

The purpose of this study is to further investigate knowledge sharing and reuse as well as the impact of digitalization on them in the PSS context from a PLC perspective. In particular, knowledge sharing and knowledge reuse at both the beginning-of-life (represented by R&D, purchasing, and production) and the middle-of-life (represented by logistics, customer service, and sales) phases are the focus. Combining systematic literature reviews with multiple case studies and a supplementary questionnaire survey, this dissertation enriches the PSS research and refines the knowledge management research. The systematic literature review specifically focusing on empirical PSS studies contributes to product-service systems (PSS) development by complementing the existing PSS review studies to provide possible directions or considerations for future empirical PSS research. Empirically, the current study not only investigates knowledge sharing and knowledge reuse together in the PSS context, but also distinguishes them by focusing on knowledge sharing from the knowledge sender’s perspective and knowledge reuse from the knowledge receiver’s perspective. The findings of this study provide a more finegrained understanding of knowledge sharing and reuse practice in the PSS context from different levels of analysis, and across different PLC phases and their corresponding subphases. They figure out the similarities and differences of knowledge sharing and knowledge reuse practice/strategies and the corresponding mechanisms in different PLC phases (i.e., BOL and MOL). By separating people-related factors and mechanismselection-related factors, the findings enhance the understanding of the influencing factors surrounding knowledge sharing and knowledge reuse. The findings also identify benefits and challenges of digitalization in the above-mentioned practices. Digitalization facilitates knowledge sharing and reuse by facilitating standardization, by providing a comprehensive knowledge repository and convenient knowledge sharing platform, and by reducing the associated money and time cost. The challenges are issues related to data security, large investments, and timely maintenance. In addition to the contribution to the relevant research fields, this dissertation highlights some managerial implications on promoting knowledge sharing/reuse in the PSS context and from a PSS provider’s perspective, including identifying the knowledge requirements in different PLC phases and sub-phases, advocating standardization, emphasizing the importance of competent people/personnel, strengthening external collaboration, matching the knowledge shared/sourced and the mechanism used, and investing in both human resource and digital technology/systems.