PROACTIVE PRODUCT SERVICE STRATEGIES - AN APPLICATION IN THE EUROPEANHEALTH MARKET

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.