Proactive product service strategies - An application in the European health market

This article develops an empirically based framework for formulating proactive product service strategies in the industrial context by investigating the influence of product services on the adoption of a new medical instrument among hospitals in Europe. We define product services as ''the set of all potential additional services a supplier can supplement his product offering with, in order to differentiate his offering relative to the competitors' as perceived by (potential) customers and distributors.'' Following a stepwise approach for formulating product service strategies, it was found that the perceived relative importance of product services in the context of the adoption of an industrial product differed over market segments, thus making the implementation of a proactive product service strategy potentially effective. Furthermore, the study indicated that the classification of product services as proposed in the literature can be extended meaningfully by distinguishing other categories of product services as well. Finally, specific managerial implications are formulated based on the results of this study. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 1997.