EXPANDING BUSINESS FROM PRODUCTS TO DIGITAL SERVICES: VALUE DIMENSIONS OF DIGITAL SERVICES ENABLED BY EMBEDDED TECHNOLOGY

Manufacturing firms are now embedding digital technology into products to offer digital services to their customers. Digital services create opportunities for firms to add new value dimensions to their businesses as firms now can expand their businesses from tangible products to digital services. Existing research explains three value dimensions. ‘Value-in-exchange’ is traditionally followed by manufacturing firms where they determine monetary value for their products and exchange the value with customers. Recent research argues that ‘value-in-exchange’ does not emphasize on interacting with customers and value is determined through ‘value-in-use’ and ‘value-in-cocreation’. With the utilization of embedded digital technology in products, new digital services are rendered and new value dimensions are emanating. Existing research informs little about the value dimensions of digital services that result from the combination of digital technology and tangible products. Therefore, in this research, we seek answer to the question, ‘What are the value dimensions of digital services enabled by embedded digital technology in tangible products?’ A qualitative study has been conducted to investigate Remote Diagnostics Services (RDS) for vehicles. Along with the three known value dimensions, that is, value-in-exchange, value-in-use and value-in-cocreation, this research contributes to knowledge by showing two new value dimensions: ‘value-in-connectivity’ and ‘value-inarchitecture’