Theoretical Contributions

In the following, the theoretical contributions of the study are summarized. The chapter first illustrates the contributions for the strategic innovation management literature and subsequently the contribution of the work for the existing phenomenological research.

First and foremost, the study has answered the central research question whether and in what context the observed implementation of performance-oriented systems in different industries is a viable strategy to gain a competitive advantage. The study concludes that the implementation of a performance-oriented system is an explicit strategy of a firm, as their analyzed development reflects the central characteristics of several relevant strategic innovation management conceptions. Further, the study presents a comprehensive list of nine enabling factors for the implementation of performance-oriented systems, which is capable to guide future quantitative research in this strand of literature.

In terms of the strategic innovation management literature the discussion section has shown that the findings are compliant with the conceptual insight from the strategy of superior architectural knowledge for entrepreneurial firms. The study extends the insights from the theoretical concept through the incorporation of service- and product-based incumbent firms and qualifies it through evidence from twenty-seven case examples from four industries. Additionally, the selected case examples reflect the theoretically postulated concepts of architectural redesign, co-specialization, modular diversification and the promotion of competition within complements. Hence, the study contributes applied evidence on the theoretically identified possibilities of a firm to change its position in the industry architecture for value creation and value appropriation.

Further, the findings are also coherent with the theory of dynamic capabilities. The results underscore the role of knowledge and competences to build a competitive advantage rather than the ownership of physical assets. A major and timely contribution of the study at hand is the connection and dual interpretation of the examined system examples with the strategic use of architectural knowledge and the established dynamic capabilities theory. The previous sections illustrated that the knowledge and competence structure in a firm is closely connected to the technology structure which ultimately contributes to the industry architecture. Thus, the study supports the proposition of the dynamic capabilities theory that a competitive advantage can be built through unique knowledge and competences. The study has illustrated that this is especially applicable, if the knowledge is suitable to resolve the bottleneck in the industry. The technological architecture of the system, and particular the bottleneck-module, provides the tangible frame to generate and secure this knowledge. Hence, the results indicate that the examined firms demonstrated their dynamic capability during the system development through a strategic use of their architectural knowledge of the industry. The examination of twenty-seven system examples within in this work underscores the theoretical assumption that the strategic use of architectural knowledge is one possible approach to translate the abstract dynamic capability of a firm into a sustained competitive advantage. Thus, the study provides practical evidence on a variety of theoretical constructs in this strand of literature which has been scarce to date.

Last, the focus of the study and, thus, the focus of the contribution reside on technological sub-systems in the industries that are situated below industry dominant systems but above firm-internal product-systems. So far, the existing literature has largely neglected this intermediary level albeit the ground realities comprise a vast amount of practical case examples. In addition to the insights of the unified platform perspective that incorporates all of the aforementioned systems, the findings within this work accentuate the role of the integrating module as a database and information filter.

In terms of phenomenological research, the study has synthesized the fragmented literature from a diverse range of disciplines that already perceived the phenomenon into the more integrated perspective of performance-oriented systems. Further, the research provides a profound rationale to the recent emphasis on the phenomenon through the selected linkage to the strategic innovation management literature.

Thus, the study contributes a strategic innovation management perspective to the scientific literature on product-service-systems and its closely related notions which has been absent prior to that. The executed abstraction and aggregation of resources towards components, modules and the system level permits for the first time a transferability of the results beyond the single case. This novel approach advances the detailed distinction and description of individual components within one system and their specific contribution to value creation that dominated the existing research in this strand of literature. Further, the study rather indicates that the whole system creates the desired value through the integration of the value steps 'system composition' and 'system operation'. This differentiation has been unnoticed to date. The study further contributes through the incorporation of value protection within its scope that has been neglected in prior contributions on product-service-systems. The study well illustrates the importance of the integrating module for the development of processing knowledge.

Thus, the importance of the integrating module and constant process innovations to capture and protect the created value contributes a novel aspect to this strand of literature. Last, the study provides a novel classification of performance-oriented systems and conventional offerings in the industry according the elasticity of resource deployment for the user which has not been used to date in this strand of literature.

Regarding the existing literature in the computational sciences, the study contributes a strategic innovation management perspective as well. The novel perspective as a sub-system in the industry, i.e. a complementary offering, explicitly acknowledges the relevance of a distinct strategy during the early development phases; no matter whether the intention of the system is industry dominance. In addition, the insights of this study emerged from four industries and thus reduced a potential industry bias. Further, the study revealed the importance of hidden information about the physical components within performance-oriented systems. This contribution enhances the understanding of the relation between technology and knowledge as well as the important role of electronic platform components, e.g. software applications, server, GPS, etc. Last, the higher elasticity of resource provisioning in performance-oriented systems that has been initially found in the computational sciences, has also been detected by the study in the other examined industries. Thus, this concept may potentially form a basis for the analysis of other offerings that integrate into the use phase.

The conceptual interpretation of the study based on anthropological studies sheds a novel perspective on the phenomenon, especially on the firm-user-relation in

performance-oriented systems and their collaboration. The study highlights that performance-oriented systems integrate characteristics of gift giving and commodity exchange, a characteristic which further distinguishes them from conventional offerings.

The integrating module creates a commons that allows for an innovative reactivation of the traditional behavior of sharing when resources are comparably scarce. This novel perspective raises further research questions about interface and incentive design in performance-oriented systems.

Last, regarding the environmental literature, the study contributes applied insights from executives of twenty-seven firms concerning their intrinsic environmental motivation, which is rated secondary in comparison to economic motives. Thus, the study contrasts and complements established research, on product-service-systems for example, which suggest a dominance of ecological benefits.