Servitization for territorial competitiveness: taxonomy and research agenda

Purpose – Academics and policy-makers have a growing interest in the effects of servitization on society and in particular on territorial competitiveness. The objective of this viewpoint is to shed light on this topic, through the development of a research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach – This article presents taxonomy of servitization research for territorial competitiveness. It includes four general categories that are drawn in four quadrants. The four articles published in this issue are representative of the different quadrants identified in the taxonomy.
Findings – This viewpoint offers comprehensive taxonomy of servitization research in a two-by-two matrix. The different categories explored are organizational processes, firm performance, digitization and knowledge intensive businesses services (KIBS). It offers a solid framework to position future research on servitization so as to better understand its relationship with firm-level and territorial competitiveness.
Practical Implications – The article opens a research agenda to strengthen understanding of how servitization and territorial competititveness are linked. This is relevant for policy-makers, who may intuitively understand the significance of servitzation but lack more detailed analysis of how it impacts and how policy might strengthen those impacts.
Originality/Value – The servitization taxonomy presented goes beyond mainstream literature and adds other relevant aspects of service business models, such as for instance the role of digitization or KIBS firms. This provides a solid basis from which the territorial competitiveness links can be explored.