Rt. Frambach et al., PROACTIVE PRODUCT SERVICE STRATEGIES - AN APPLICATION IN THE EUROPEANHEALTH MARKET, Industrial marketing management, 26(4), 1997, pp. 341-352
This article develops an empirically based framework for formulating p
roactive product service strategies in the industrial context by inves
tigating the influence of product services on the adoption of a new me
dical instrument among hospitals in Europe. We define product services
as ''the set of all potential additional services a supplier can supp
lement his product offering with, in order to differentiate his offeri
ng relative to the competitors' as perceived by (potential) customers
and distributors.'' Following a stepwise approach for formulating prod
uct service strategies, it was found that the perceived relative impor
tance of product services in the context of the adoption of an industr
ial product differed over market segments, thus making the implementat
ion of a proactive product service strategy potentially effective. Fur
thermore, the study indicated that the classification of product servi
ces as proposed in the literature can be extended meaningfully by dist
inguishing other categories of product services as well. Finally, spec
ific managerial implications are formulated based on the results of th
is study. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 1997.