The Demand-Pull Approach to Business Model Innovation Through Product-Service Systems: A Case Study

Industry is facing a deep transformation of the modes of production and consumption, resulting in a shift from product-centric practices towards sustainable and customer-oriented ones. In this context, Product-Service Systems (PSS) exhibit the potential for innovative and customer oriented value propositions. To take full advantage of PSS, it is essential to design suitable business models enabling an alignment of the processes, products and services to customer needs. Innovation Management is an important literature stream contributing to understand the business model transformation by differentiating between two main approaches of innovation: technology-push and demand-pull. Until now, little attention has been put in the demand-pull approach for business model innovation. The central question this paper addresses is: How does the demand-pull approach for the design of a PSS value proposition affects the whole business model of a company? To answer this question a literature review is a carried out, and then a research-intervention methodology is applied to a real case.