A customer-oriented model of product-service system lifecycle

Abstract

A product-service system (PSS) is an integrated bundle of products and services, which aims at creating customer utility and enhancing manufacturers' competitiveness. Given that products and services are integrated over a specific cycle, PSS lifecycle has become a key notion in PSS research. However, most studies focus on PSS lifecycle from a provider perspective although the essence of PSS is to create customer utility. The current work proposes a customer-oriented model of PSS lifecycle as a solid basis for analysing PSS lifecycle from a customer perspective. The proposed model comprises one general and three specific types of PSS lifecycle (product-, use-, and result-oriented PSS). The proposed model is expected to be utilised to supplement the existing studies to consider the PSS mechanism from a customer perspective. A concrete notion of PSS lifecycle from a customer perspective may contribute to customer-oriented PSS innovations.