Exploring the link between service business models and sustainability: literature analysis and exemplary cases

During the most recent years, a lot of businesses that gained their success through a product-centric business model are undertaking a servitization strategy. We can define servitization as a shift made by a company towards revenues from services and solutions as a new revenue source (Ulaga, 2018). This trend can be noticed even looking at some GDPs of some very industrialised Countries such as Germany (70% of GDP provided by services), but also USA, United Kingdom and France (between 75 and 80%) (Kowalkowski, Ulaga, 2017). A relatively new line of studies is trying to link this business phenomenon with another predominant topic: sustainability. During this research activity we will try firstly to catch what literature has already understood and realised. Then we will provide some case analysis of firms already into servitization trying to capture the impact of this choice on their economics activity and sustainability point of view. In the last section of the paper we will summarise our conclusion providing an answer to the original research question, and in the end we’ll try to anticipate future trends and implications, both from an academics and managerial point of view.