Value Creation through Service Offers

This paper discusses the profitability of service offerings by small and medium sized industrial firms. The first part summarizes the main arguments supporting the theoretical debate. The second part presents the results of a field study made in six industrial SMEs; it highlights the heterogeneity of their policies and practices regarding the pricing and costing of their service offers. The last part of the paper stresses the conditions and actions required to make services actually profitable for manufacturing companies.