Identifying and Analyzing the Customer Situation: Drivers for Purchasing Industrial Product Service Systems

Capabilities and resources a potential customer possesses are of utmost importance for suppliers in conceptualizing an industrial product- service system (IPS2). Suppliers have to tailor their offerings to specific situations within purchasing companies and solve underlying problems adequately to achieve customer satisfaction and long-term economic success. Hence, suppliers must identify and analyze customer companies and existing capabilities and resources very precisely to be able to design and conceptualize an individualized IPS2. The paper at hand analyzes the influence of customers’ capabilities and resources, customers’ management style and underlying processes on the choice of a solution.