The Value Chain in Product Service Systems

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,9, Pforzheim University, language: English, abstract: This paper explains the general structure of a (global) value chain and sets it into the context of product-service systems. Furthermore, it evaluates benefits and disadvantages of product-service systems and their impact on the value creation and on finances, identifying cost savings and inevitable occurring costs. Nowadays, companies, especially product-grounded companies, face increasing competition. Companies underlay fundamental shifts in the value creation process. In the past, the focus was on the sale of a product or service, whereas today it is the customer with his needs and wishes. It gets more difficult to differentiate products from the products of one¿s competitors, as anyone can build products with comparably good quality. Therefore, the commodity trap appears, meaning that the customer¿s perceive products as exchangeable. Hence, companies need to reconsider their business models and react to the inevitable competition. A possible solution is to rethink their business models and implement a more service-oriented perspective in their range of products.