Influence of organizational elements on manufacturing firms' service-enhancement: An empirical study based on Chinese ICT industry

• This paper explores organizational characters of firms who attempt to make transition to service-led growth.
• We consider the comprehensive internal organizational factors on service-enhancement in manufacturing firms.
• This paper provides insight attained from quantitative analyses based on survey data from Chinese ICT manufacturing firms.
• This paper extends the study of servitization of manufacturing firms in developing countries.

Despite the growing awareness of the importance of servitization of manufacturing, relatively little study has been performed on how organizational elements may or may not enhance the value creation of manufacturing, and even less in the developing countries. The present study aims to bridge this gap by examining the impact of a set of organizational elements on the service-enhancement in a sample of ICT manufacturing enterprises in China. The results of a multivariate analysis indicate that the degree of service-enhancement (measured by product, customer and financial performance) can be well explained by five organizational elements (service technological capability, strategic orientation (including market and innovation orientation), organization design, and resources endowment). Therefore, it is necessary for firms to consider organizational elements in implementing servitization in manufacturing firms.