Value Chain in Product Service Systems

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,9, Pforzheim University, language: English, abstract: This paper explains the general structure of a (global) value chain and sets it into the context of product-service systems. Furthermore, it evaluates benefits and disadvantages of product-service systems and their impact on the value creation and on finances, identifying cost savings and inevitable occurring costs. Nowadays, companies, especially product-grounded companies, face increasing competition. Companies underlay fundamental shifts in the value creation process. In the past, the focus was on the sale of a product or service, whereas today it is the customer with his needs and wishes. It gets more difficult to differentiate products from the products of one s competitors, as anyone can build products with comparably good quality. Therefore, the commodity trap appears, meaning that the customer s perceive products as exchangeable. Hence, companies need to reconsider their business models and react to the inevitable competition. A possible solution is to rethink their business models and implement a more service-oriented perspective in their range of products.