Exploring the concept of servitization

This thesis aims to explore the concept of servitization. The research is structured around four questions: What is servitization? Why is servitization taking place in companies? How is servitization taking place in companies? What are the implications and hurdles of servitization? Looking to answer these four questions, the thesis is divided into two parts. The first is a literature review built around these questions looking at different points of view from the scientific literature. In this part we found an appropriate definition of servitization set by Vandermerwe and Rada in 1988. The content of the definition sets the scope of the research. In the second part, we confront the findings from the literature to three case studies (Hilti, Microsoft and Cambio). The information used for the case studies comes from five interviews conducted with managers and consultants. As a conclusion of this second part, different models are suggested building on the findings of the literature review and the confrontation.