Dynamic capabilities-enabled servitization: the role of exploitative quality management

Literature is silent on whether the impact of dynamic capabilities (DCs) on transformative efforts towards servitization is hampered by manufacturers’ exploitative quality management (QM) employed to improve production efficiencies. Based on theoretical and empirical insights about 60 manufacturers this paper offers propositions on this question and a nuanced appreciation of the conflicts and barriers manufacturers face to effectively use DCs to servitize. It shows that DCs strengthen manufacturers’ customer solution capabilities and service resources. However, although directly improving their service resources, exploitative QM weakens the positive impact of DCs on such resources, yet without necessarily affecting customer solution capabilities. Hence, manufacturers’ use of exploitative QM can bolster their service resources yet concurrently reduce the impact of their transformative efforts towards servitization. The paper also delves into the tensions that can arise between the equipment and service parts of a manufacturing organisation and proposes managerial guidance on how to address them.