Creating Sustainable Value Through Service Offerings

OVERVIEW: Companies are increasingly applying service offerings to create sustainable value for their customers and stake-holders. However, sustainability involves a wide range of issues, including those concerning the economy, the environment, and society. Companies will lose direction if they do not have clear propositions stating their values regarding sustainability or an in-depth understanding of the customer context for valuing sustainability. In this article, we discuss how product-centric companies integrate sustainability considerations into services and then apply innovative offerings to fulfill customer needs, to generate environmental/social benefits, and to increase business potential. In addition, we propose guiding principles for developing sustainability-led service offerings, present three cases to explore different strategies, and discuss the implications for business managers.