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Extensive research has made it possible for service climate (SC) to establish itself as “a pivotal construct from a practical and theoretical perspective in the services marketing and management literatures” (Auh et al., 2011, p. 427). Key to that interest is the role granted to SC in several important outcomes, such as customer satisfaction and loyalty. A closer look at the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence supporting such role reveals, however, several fragilities. The main purpose of this paper is to present some of those fragilities considered to be particularly relevant to identify possible ways to avoid them.

An extensive review of SC literature was conducted leading to the identification of several fragilities regarding the role of SC in customers experiences.

The literature review conducted revealed several limitations that warrant some caution regarding the general consensus concerning the role of SC in customers experiences.

The originality of this paper lies in the identification of several important issues regarding the arguments and empirical support that have been ignored in the literature regarding the role of SC in customers experiences.

This paper aims to discuss the firm productivity premium for servitized firms. It discusses servitization across the product value chain and estimates the effects of the range and extent of servitization on productivity premium in manufacturing firms.

This paper develops a conceptual framework and tests the hypotheses on the effects of servitization on productivity premium using linear regression models with a sample of 20,837 Russian manufacturing firms gathered from the Ruslana Bureau van Dijk database and the Russian customs service.

Servitized firms exhibit higher total factor productivity and labor productivity. The labor productivity premium increases with the number of services offered. However, the impact of services on productivity varies along the product value chain: postmanufacturing and postsales services enhance productivity premium, while manufacturing and back-office services diminish them. The effect of establishment services remains ambiguous.

This paper offers an analytical framework for firms to assess their servitization strategies. These strategies should be gradual, focused on enhancing firm efficiency rather than being an end goal. Firms should initiate the process by introducing services at the postproduction and postsales stages of the product creation chain to achieve productivity premium.

The paper extends the evidence on firm-level productivity drivers and contributes to the servitization theory. A servitization strategy should be portfolio-based, considering both the potential gains and losses in productivity resulting from the implementation of specific services.