Advancement in digital technology is rapidly changing the contemporary landscape of business and associated networks for manufacturing firms. Many traditional physical products are now being embedded with digital components, providing them digital capability to become digitized products. The digitization of physical products has become an important driver for digital service innovation within manufacturing industries. Such digital service innovation transforms value networks of manufacturing firms in various industries. While digitization of products and digital service innovation can be observed in many manufacturing industries, this thesis focuses on the transformation of value networks within the vehicle industry. This thesis is a collection of papers and a cover paper. The thesis reports from a collaborative project in the vehicle industry. The project explored new digital services for vehicles based on remote diagnostics technology. The exploration and conceptualization of digital services is investigated in a collaborative manner with participants from the vehicle industry. The results reflect that there is a paradigm shift for manufacturing firms digitizing their products, and stretching the business scope from product to solution oriented business. This thesis contributes to the existing literature on digital innovation with insights on the transformation of value networks in the vehicle industry. The research question addressed in this thesis is: How are value networks of manufacturing firms transformed by digital service innovation? To answer the question, this thesis conceptualizes how the value creating pattern of digitized products transforms value networks of manufacturing firms. A model is presented that reflects how the symbiotic value relationship between the digitized product and digital services transforms the roles, relationships and exchanges in the value networks of manufacturing firms. The model can serve as an analytical tool to further advance the knowledge on business aspects in digital innovation. This thesis contributes to practice by providing an understanding of how manufacturing firms can leverage value of digitized products and digital services in value networks. / ReDi2Service

The digitalization of products has become an important driver for service innovation in manufacturing firms. The embedding of digital technology in previously non-digital products creates digitalized product platforms that enable digital service innovation. Digital service innovation offers new business opportunities for manufacturing industries, as well as challenges established premises for value creation.  While digital service innovation can be found in many manufacturing industries, this thesis studies service logic in digitalized product platforms in the vehicle industry. Existing Information Systems (IS) literature presents challenges in digital service innovation relating to value, architecture, and generativity. The design of the architecture of digitalized product platforms requires the identification and combination of digital and non-digital assets. Understanding the architectural aspects is useful in digital service innovation. Moreover, with growing instances of generative digital technologies, it is challenging to develop strategies to leverage generativity for service design in digitalized product platforms. While digital technologies are embedded in products, the role of technology-embeddedness in value creation of digital services is relatively unexplored. Drawing on these challenges, this thesis describes and conceptualizes the underlying premises brought by the architecture and generativity to the value creation of services in digitalized product platforms. The research question addressed in this thesis is: What are the underlying premises for services in digitalized product platforms? To address the question, an interpretive qualitative research approach was adopted in a collaborative research project concerning services enabled by digitalization of vehicles. Drawing on digital innovation and service literature, this thesis presents a theoretical perspective on the role of the architecture and generativity of digitalized product platforms for value creation of digital services. This perspective is conceptualized as underlying premises for this specific class of services. The premises frame the service logic in digitalized product platforms and provide a ground for understanding services in digitalized product platforms in relation to value dimensions, architecture and generativity. The premises are based on five concepts: value-in-architecture, value-in-connectivity, fundamental asset for value creation, mutual dependence of modular and layered modular assets, and re-evaluation of value propositions. The proposed premises offer a basis for understanding value creation of this class of services, and guidance for manufacturing firms designing digitalized product platforms.

Innovating with digital technologies is becoming increasingly necessary as firms seek to remain competitive. Previous scholarship has showed how digital innovation can be managed to be competitive and gain value creation internally. However, the use of diverse digital resources in creating novel services has shaped an opportunity for research in Digital service innovation (DSI). To date, DSI have started to spread in Information System research. However, to understand DSI and its associated value creation dynamics – the relations between internal and external IT-based value creation are unreported. Therefore, in drawing on a qualitative case study of construction firm’s use of DSI capabilities through a Web-based 3D Configurator. This thesis aims to understand its role and dynamics between internal and external IT-based value creation. The results illustrate the role of the Web-based 3D configurator as a fundamental means for delivering both internal and external values. Contrasting previous research, the findings reveal how the firm first needed to achieve external IT-based value creation before internal IT-based values could be realized. This findings contributes to a deeper understanding of DSI and its value creation dynamics, which in the future can be a starting point for creation of new frameworks in managing DSI.