Servitization in Italy: evidences from the Lazio region

Since the term “servitization” was coined by Vandermerwe and Rada in 1988, it has been deeply discussed during these decades, not only among academics, but also among practitioners and policy makers all over the world. However, despite this strong interest, there is still a paucity of studies that empirically analyse this phenomenon. This is especially true if we look at the studies that analyse how manufacturing companies, located in different countries, adopt (or not) a servitization strategy (some exceptions in this sense are the studies by Baines et al. 2009, Lay et al. 2010, and Szàsz and Demeter 2011). In this respect, it is worth noting that no empirical studies regarding the Italian manufacturing firms have been produced yet. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to provide a preliminary exploration and measurement of the extent, motivations and transformations processes related to the implementation of servitization strategies by the Italian manufacturing firms. In particular, the paper describes the impacts of services growth in the development of manufacturing firms located in the Italian region of Lazio. In order to reach the paper aim, the survey methodology has been chose (Fowler, 2013; Groves et al., 2013; Babbie, 1990). The questionnaire used for the survey has been constructed by both adopting and adapting (Bourque and Clark, 1994) the questions used in the survey by Baines et al. in 2009. The questionnaire is a self-completed one and it has been sent by email to all the manufacturing firms belonging to the Italian business association of Unindustria Lazio. The questionnaire consists of seven sections, which are: respondent data, company general information, service offering, service strategy, motivations, organizational changes and future perspectives. The questions were predominantly closed-ended, even though some of them were also accompanied by comment boxes. Due to the lack of studies addressing the adoption of the servitization strategy in the Italian manufacturing firms, first of all, this work stands as a first attempt to bridge the gap in the current literature. Although findings are preliminary, the analysis of the survey results allow us: • to draw an overview of the Italian manufacturing firms belonging to the Lazio region, and • to provide useful suggestions both to practitioners and researchers. In this vein, this study has the potential to show also the positive effects generated by the adoption of the servitization strategy. Finally, the replication of the study by Baines et al. 2009 allows to make a comparison between Italian and UK manufacturing firms with respect to their propensity to adopt a servitization strategy.