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The purpose of this paper is to further develop the construct of service platform and to clarify the definition of service platform in an industrial context. To do so, an understanding of the foundations for service platforms, based on a service perspective, is created.

The study has adopted a qualitative case study approach and builds on in-depth interviews with remote service teams in two multinational firms: one in the food processing and packaging industry and the other in the pulp and paper industry.

The foundations for successful service platforms consist of modularising resources, integrations and service processes to create value propositions. The value propositions could result in variations of a service or in variations of different services. When defining the concept service platform, the perspective of service needs to be made evident; therefore, the authors define service platform as: value proposition(s) consisting of a modular structure that invites to and facilitates value co-creation between resources, through integration opportunities in a continuous service process.

The results are based on the perspective of two suppliers in similar industries; only remote services were studied. Firms from different types of industries and other types of services could add to the research on service modularity according to a service perspective. Moreover, information about customers and other actors’ involvement on the platform was gathered from the firms studied, no customers or other actors were interviewed.

This study shows the importance of a firm involving itself in the value creation of the customer, that is, focusing on value co-creation. This implies a close cooperation between the manufacturer and its customer – not only at a given point in time but also over a longer period of cooperation. Through the different types of modules building up the service platform, value co-creation can take place in various ways.

This study offers original empirical contributions on platforms from a service perspective. The study contributes to servitisation, service modularity and service (dominant) logic research by developing an understanding of the foundations for service platforms based on a service perspective. It also contributes to platform research more specifically by developing a definition of service platform in an industrial context.

The purpose is to understand how the role of quality functions might evolve amidst digitalisation and an increased focus on services. This study focuses on customer feedback and how it can function as activation triggers for developing absorptive capacity, as well as how it relates to the value creation processes.

Following a qualitative research design, the authors gathered primary data from interviews with quality managers at 17 UK and Swedish firms and triangulated it with secondary information from the firms' web pages.

The findings show that customer feedback-based activation triggers can support development of absorptive capacity in the quality function if there are established processes for acting on customer feedback. This is often the case for codified feedback, which normally concerns products. However, digitalisation offers new opportunities of engaging in value co-creation, and firms need to develop digital capabilities to manage new technologies and data analytic tools. For personalised feedback (the main category of service-related feedback), established processes are missing.

This study work contributes to knowledge about how quality functions respond to customer feedback on both products and services. It clarifies why the quality function sometimes struggles to contribute to service quality as much as to product quality. From a theory development perspective, the authors contribute to understanding customer feedback-based activation triggers, how they lead to development of absorptive capacity and their relation to value co-creation on a functional level.

The paper seeks to investigate how and why service strategies differ among manufacturing companies at different positions in a supply chain.

The research was based on a multiple case study of three original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) – a heavy truck provider, a bus provider, and a construction equipment provider – and eight of their suppliers in the automotive industry. A total of 19 semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews were conducted with managers, including service managers, production managers, marketing managers, and chief executive officers.

A company's choice of service strategy appears to be influenced by its position in the supply chain. Whereas the OEMs were all after‐sales service providers, the suppliers were either development partners or had a customer service strategy. The main reasons for the difference in strategies seem to relate to differences in customer demand, the products to which the services were related, and the size of the companies.

The paper was conducted as a multiple case study that focused on two positions in the supply chain. In order to further validate the results, future studies should include more case studies that cover additional positions in the supply chain.

The paper contributes to the sparsely researched area of manufacturing firms as services providers. Previous research has tended to focus on the actions of OEMs. The wider scope of the supply chain, covered in this paper, shows that small suppliers are influenced by the service infusion of the manufacturing industry.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe certain critical dimensions related to service innovation in manufacturing firms. The paper focuses on dimensions related to the service transition, the offering and the development project.

A multiple case study was conducted in order to trace specific service innovations and to explore critical dimensions and events throughout their development. A total of 16 interviews were held, covering service innovations in SKF, Volvo Buses, and Volvo Trucks.

Each of the three service innovations studied are examples of recombinative innovations. While there are some differences in terms of what is innovative, a common theme is the bundling of technology and services. Recombinative innovation opens up the possibility to combine standardization and customization, which has been identified as a success factor for services in manufacturing companies.

Although a large number of manufacturing firms are introducing services to utilize the entire life‐cycle of the installed base, there is a shortage of literature that includes elaborate empirical accounts of service innovations in manufacturing firms. The study expands the scope for viewing service innovation by not only focusing on the offering but also taking into account service transition and the development project.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of innovation modes in understanding challenges of integrated NSD and NPD, and the use of structured NSD processes in manufacturing firms.

The research is based on a two-stage multiple case study. The first stage is an interview study of 17 key informants representing manufacturing firms in the machine industry. The second stage is an in-depth study of three service innovations at three manufacturing firms based on 16 interviews with key informants.

The results of the study show that NSD processes are often more structured if the service is developed separately from the product. The fact that different innovation modes benefit from varying degrees of structure in the development process means that integrated service development can be challenging. Furthermore, service innovations often follow a trajectory of innovation modes before succeeding in the market. Some innovation modes occur within the NSD process, while others occur outside the process. One success factor for NSD is the fit between the innovation modes and the NSD process, rather than the NSD process per se.

This research uses innovation modes to explain why NSD in manufacturing firms is often performed on an ad hoc basis, and how service innovations go through a trajectory of innovation modes. In this way, the study contributes to theory development of service innovation, and specifically service innovations in manufacturing firms.

This study aims to explore school health promotion (HP) as a set of institutionally embedded professional practices.

This is a qualitative study using data from nineteen interviews with school professionals in Sweden. Data analysis was informed by practice theory and an institutional logic perspective.

School professionals constructed practical understandings of HP at the intersection between institutional directives and professional values. Professionals were challenged by multiple and occasionally ambiguous policy directives as well as by multiple tiers of governance. Professional understandings of institutional directives were mediated by a bureaucratic logic and three instantiations of a professional logic (competence, pragmatic and entrepreneurial). School leadership was perceived as a crucial link between institutional directives and professional practices.

The findings draw attention to the need for policy revision and disambiguation as well as the need for establishing dynamic institutional dialogues across levels of governance. These measures can foster sage leadership and fruitful interprofessional collaboration within school HP.

The findings provide a multi-perspective view of school HP and link professional values to institutional ones. The study sheds light on the explanatory relevance of human cognition in practice contexts.