Service innovation is increasingly becoming a basis for manufacturing firms to reach and sustain competitive advantages. While traditional product innovation typically includes how new technology can be utilized in new products, service innovation spans a broader area that is not exclusively focused on new technology, but rather how resources can be developed into value propositions and then integrated in the customer’s process in order to support customer value creation through realization. However, manufacturing firms that infuse services struggle with service innovation; this becomes especially evident in the realization phase. This thesis is a compilation of five papers discussing different aspects of service innovation realization and the inherited challenges. The study builds upon empirical data from four Swedish manufacturing firms that infuse services and develop new value propositions that include both products and services to support customer processes. The thesis illustrates realization as a phase in service innovation where the firm interacts with its customer in order to adjust, revise and further find new ways of improving the customer’s processes through for example customer training. Realization is characterized by a deployment phase and a post-deployment phase that represent the ongoing relationship between the customer and the firm. Depending on who has the competencies or ability to integrate the resources that are needed for service innovation, different interaction patterns are identified. Through indirect interaction, the firm facilitates the customer’s value creation through, for example, preventive maintenance, while through direct interaction the firm acts as a co-creator in the service innovation process and hence work jointly together with the customer in order to improve customer value creation. This thesis contributes to the literature by characterizing service innovation realization and by increasing the understanding for different interaction patterns in the service innovation process.

This thesis focuses on the planned investment project of a production company. It compares two possible investment options, among which the firm decides. The final work shall consider the options on the basis of evaluation methods of investment efficiency. It’s trying to find the best way in term of efficiency. Thesis also includes analysis of the financial health of the company. This financial analysis serves to evaluation whether the company is prepared for any investment. It is suggested the most appropriate investment option for the company and pros and cons of both types are summarized in conclusion.

This thesis set out to investigate what motivates an established manufacturing firm to add smart and connectivity features into its products and what considerations are made when doing so. Such a firm was used as a case study object, a firm that is considering digitalization in one of its product areas but has not yet finalized the strategy on how to move forward. The qualitative study was made using semi-structured interviews which included mostly respondents from this organization, but also respondents representing the customers as small company entrepreneurs.  A literature study was conducted to better define the subject of product digitalization. Previous research on smart and connected products as well as related business and market theories were identified as relevant, as well as literature on digital transformation. Based on the literature study, a theoretical framework was formulated in the form of an iterative model on product digitalization, where the business and market mechanics are included. A qualitative case study was then conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews, with topics considered relevant based on the literature study. The empirical data shows many similarities compared to the current literature on the topic. The literature study has identified these aspects as relevant to be considered by an established manufacturing firm and compared them with the case study firm: ·       Digital vision – with clear intent and outcome for both the business and the customer ·       Customer intimacy – services related to smart and connected products will increase the intimacy to the end customer ·       Business model – product sales business model will be transformed by servitization ·       Technology content – smart and connected products need integration of new technologies, such as hardware, software and data management ·       Capabilities – necessary capabilities and the ability to integrate and coordinate these ·       Competitive strategy – using digital technology to gain competitive advantage.  ·       Technology acceptance –what technologies are accepted by the customers and why The case study shows that the firm have identified several key areas affected by product digitalization. Many of these aspects are considered when making strategic decisions, and the members of the organization are including most of them when building scenarios. One area of concern is the ability to integrate and coordinate all necessary functions, both for technology and services. Another is the switch in mindset going from a predictable product business model to a innovate digital one. Offering services will bring them into more direct contact with the customers, and possibly change the role of the dealership network.

[pt] O fenômeno da inovação e a forma como ele contribui para o desempenho das firmas depende de várias variáveis, como as características da firma, as suas estratégias, a indústria e o ambiente. O Brasil não é reconhecido como tendo um ambiente amigável para a inovação, ao contrário da maioria dos países europeus, e isto pode ser uma das razões pelas quais o país está travado em seu desenvolvimento econômico. Considerando o que foi mencionado acima, esta tese tem como objetivo contribuir explorando a relação entre P e D interno e externo, desempenho de inovação e desempenho financeiro nas firmas de manufatura brasileiras e de alguns países europeus e comparar as duas realidades para tirar lições sobre como as firmas brasileiras podem evoluir no seu desempenho de inovação e no seu desempenho financeiro. A estratégia para atingir esse objetivo foi propor um modelo teórico e algumas hipóteses baseadas em uma extensa revisão bibliográfica dos campos de gestão de inovação e estratégia e testá-los através de modelagem de equações estruturais (SEM), utilizando a estimativa bayesiana. Para testar o modelo no contexto brasileiro, utilizou-se uma amostra de 2.810 firmas de manufatura que realizaram atividades de inovação entre 2009 e 2011 da pesquisa de inovação brasileira PINTEC 2011. Para o contexto europeu, tomou-se uma amostra de 2.745 firmas de manufatura de 14 países (Bulgária, República Checa, Chipre, Espanha, Croácia, Portugal, Hungria, Eslovênia, Noruega, Lituânia, Romênia, Itália, Eslováquia e Estônia) da Pesquisa de Inovação da Comunidade (CIS) 2010, que considerou os anos de 2008 a 2010. No caso do Brasil, uma relação positiva direta entre alianças estratégicas e desempenho de inovação foi detectada. O P e D interno, por outro lado, não influenciou diretamente o desempenho da inovação, no entanto, moderou positivazmente a relação entre alianças estratégicas e inovação, o que é consistente com a teoria da capacidade absortiva. Ao contrário da teoria, o desempenho de inovação teve uma influência negativa no desempenho financeiro futuro. Esta relação negativa pode ter sido causada pelo atraso de dois anos entre as proxies desses dois construtos do modelo, que não permitiu identificar um aumento nas receitas obtidas pelos novos produtos e serviços, mas permitiu capturar o efeito negativo do redirecionamento de recursos do marketing e vendas para atividades de inovação, como P e D interno, e dos custos gerenciais das alianças estratégicas. Para os países europeus, a análise empírica detectou uma relação positiva entre o P e D interno e externo (de alianças estratégicas) e o desempenho de inovação separadamente. Contrariamente às expectativas, não se encontrou uma moderação do P e D interno na relação entre as alianças estratégicas e o desempenho de inovação. Isso provavelmente foi provocado pela baixa capacidade absortiva das firmas nos países europeus estudados em comparação com os países mais inovadores da Europa e mundialmente. O desempenho de inovação não influenciou o desempenho financeiro. Isso pode ter sido causado pela ausência de um intervalo de tempo entre a medida das proxies desses dois construtos, o que não permitiu identificar um aumento nas receitas de novos produtos e serviços, que leva algum tempo para ser percebido. Os resultados de ambos os modelos sugeriram que, se o principal objetivo é uma melhoria imediata nos níveis de desempenho da inovação, as firmas de manufatura devem se concentrar em P e D interno ou externo. No entanto, se o objetivo principal é o longo prazo, começar por fortalecer o P e D interno é mais efetivo para melhorar a capacidade absortiva das firmas e ao mesmo tempo alcançar um desempenho de inovação satisfatório. Esta estratégia permitirá que elas adotem estratégias mais complexas, equilibrando o P e D interno e externo, de forma efetiva no futuro, quando o nível de capacidade absortiva se tornar alto. / [en] The innovation phenomenon and how it contributes to the firms performance is contingent on several variables, such as the firm s characteristics, its strategies, the industry and the environment. Brazil is not recognized as having a friendly environment for innovation, in contrast with most of the European countries, and this issue may be one of the reasons why the country is stuck in its economic development. Considering all mentioned above, this dissertation aims to contribute by exploring the relationships among internal and external R and D, innovation performance and financial performance in the Brazilian and in some European countries manufacturing firms and compare both realities to learn lessons about how Brazilian firms may evolve in their innovation and financial performance. The strategy to achieve this goal was to propose a theoretical model and some hypotheses based on an extensive literature review of the innovation management and strategy fields and test them through structural equation modeling (SEM), using Bayesian estimation. In order to test the model in the Brazilian context, a sample of 2,810 manufacturing firms that conducted innovation activities from 2009 to 2011 of the Brazilian innovation survey PINTEC 2011 was used. For the European context, the sample had 2,745 manufacturing firms of 14 countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Spain, Croatia, Portugal, Hungary, Slovenia, Norway, Lithuania, Romania, Italy, Slovakia and Estonia) of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) 2010, which considered the years of 2008 to 2010. In the case of Brazil, a positive direct relationship between strategic alliances and innovation performance was detected. Internal R and D, on the other hand, did not influence innovation performance directly, however, it positively moderated the relationship between strategic alliances and innovation, which is consistent with the absorptive capacity theory. Contrary to the theory, innovation performance had a negative influence on the future financial performance. This negative relationship may have been caused by the two-years lag between the proxies of the two constructs of the model, that did not identify an increasing in revenues achieved by the new products and services, but captured the negative effect of the redirection of resources from marketing and sales to innovation activities, such as internal R and D, and of the managerial costs of the strategic alliances. For the selected European countries, the empirical analysis detected a positive relationship between internal and external R and D (from strategic alliances) and innovation performance separately. Contrary to the expectations, it did not find a moderation of internal R and D on the relationship between strategic alliances and innovation performance. This was probably caused by the low absorptive capacity of the firms in the European countries studied compared to the most innovative countries in Europe and in the world. Innovation performance did not influence financial performance. This may have been caused by the absence of a time-lag between the measurement of the proxies of these two constructs, which did not to allow to identify an increasing in revenues from new products and services, that takes some time to be perceived. All the results of both models suggested that, if the main goal is an immediate improvement in the innovation performance levels, manufacturing firms should focus on either internal or external R and D. However, if the main goal is the long-term, beginning to strengthen their internal R and D is effective to improve the firms absorptive capacity while achieving a satisfactory innovation outcome. This strategy will allow them to adopt more complex strategies, balancing internal and external R and D, effectively in the future, when the absorptive capacity level becomes high.