Dear Colleagues,
We are delighted to announce the publication of:
NEW BUSINESS FOR OLD EUROPE
PRODUCT-SERVICE DEVELOPMENT, COMPETITIVENESS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Edited by Arnold Tukker, TNO, the Netherlands, and Ursula Tischner,
econcept, Germany
September 2006
440pp | 234 x 156 mm
Hardback: ISBN 1 874719 92 6 | GBP35.00 USD65.00
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To place an order for this title at a discount of 10%, or to view Part
1 ‘Product-services: the Context’ and Part 7 ‘Need area 1: Base
Materials’ online,
please visit the Greenleaf website at:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com/catalogue/suspro.htm
You can also request a review copy or inspection copy from this site -
see the home page:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com
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SELLING PRODUCTS used to be the standard way of doing business.
Traditionally, it is left to the user to transform the purchase of a
product into something that fulfils effectively a final-user need.
Today, two streams of research - business management and sustainability
- normally with very distinct perspectives on the world, have
surprisingly converged to form a common conclusion: selling products is
old-fashioned business. Companies should switch their focus to selling
need fulfilment, satisfaction, or experiences. Or, in other words,
selling integrated solutions or product-services.
The business management literature argues that, by focusing on the
integrated, final-client needs, and delivering integrated solutions
fulfilling these needs, companies will be able to improve their
position in the value chain, enhance added value of their offering, and
improve their innovation potential. In a business world where many
products are becoming equally well-performing commodities, this
strategy is one of the ways to avoid a sheer competition on price - a
type of competition that Europe never can win with emerging and
low-cost economies such as China. In that sense, product-services can
mean new business for old Europe.
The sustainability knowledge stream argues that need-focused solutions
could be inherently more sustainable than products. Product-services
could offer the value of use instead of the product itself and decrease
the environmental load in two ways. First, companies offering the
service would have all the incentives to make the (product-)system
efficient, as they get paid by the result. Second, consumers would be
encouraged to alter their behaviour as they gain insight into all the
costs involved with the use
Until today, the connections and interchange between the two research
streams have been quite limited. The question of whether
product-services truly are the avenue to a sustainable world is still
under discussion. This book aims to develop a systematic view on this
issue.
The potential of product-services to enhance competitiveness and
contribute to sustainable development prompted the EU to invest heavily
in the theme under the EU’s 5th Framework Programme (FP5; 1997–2002). A
variety of research and development projects in the field were
supported under the umbrella of the Sustainable Product Development
Network (SusProNet). These included MEPSS (Methodology Product Service
Systems); Home Services; HiCS (Highly Customerised Solutions); Prosecco
(Product-Service Co-design); and Innopse (Innovation Studio and
exemplary developments for Product-Service).
The projects were undertaken by a mix of European research institutions
and companies including Orange, Philips and Nokia. Some of these
projects focused on developing methods that could help industries
change their output from a product to a service. Others focused on the
development of new product-services or solutions (HiCS, Prosecco,
Innopse), and yet others tried to analyse under which circumstances
product-services are likely to be implemented and accepted by consumers
(Home Services). One project focused on dissemination of the concept to
SMEs (Lean Services). Other projects focused purely on new
product-service development, such as Brainfridge (an intelligent fridge
managing its supply chain), ASP-NET (application service providers),
Protex (intelligent enzymes) and IPSCON (receivers for wireless
telephones). New Business for Old Europe brings together the key
outputs from all of these groups to present a state-of-the-art
collection on product-service development, prospects and implications
for competitiveness and sustainability.
The book has a number of aims. First, it attempts to bridge the gap
between business and sustainability literature to lead to a
better-founded understanding of the business drivers for embarking on
product-service development, and its relation with sustainability and
competitiveness. Second, the book reviews the large amount of studies
that have developed toolkits, methods and approaches that can support
marketers, product developers and strategists in business to develop
product-services, selects the best-practice approaches and analyses any
gaps.
Third, the book examines what opportunities there are for
product-service development in a variety of key areas including base
materials, information and communication technologies, offices, food
and households. Each chapter in this section discusses the area,
developments that will stimulate or hinder the market opportunities for
product-services, product-service examples, and typical implementation
challenges for product-services in that area. These chapters serve as a
quick introduction for companies interested in developing
product-services in a specific area. Fourth, the book translates all
the lessons into suggested approaches for product-service development
by companies. Annexes include a lightweight ‘product-service
development manual’ and an alphabetical list of useful underlying
tools.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Introduction
1.1 From products to solutions or product-services
1.2 SusProNet
1.3 The goal and structure of this book
2 Product-services: a specific value proposition
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Product-service systems in the sustainability literature
2.3 Value propositions and their production in the business literature
2.4 Definitions and terminology used in this book
3 Product-services and competitiveness
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Some perspectives on business strategy
3.3 Some perspectives on business system dynamics
3.4 Competitiveness of business systems and the contribution of PSS
3.5 Discussion per type of PSS
3.6 Conclusion: factors determining the business case for
product-services
4 Product-services and sustainability
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Towards an understanding of decoupling
4.3 The contribution of product-services to sustainability
4.4 Factors determining sustainability per type of PSS
4.5 Conclusions
5 The toolbox for product-service development
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Product and service design
5.3 Methods for product service design
5.4 Product-service system design tools
5.5 PSS development experience of SusProNet partner companies
5.6 Conclusions
6 Introduction to the need-area chapters
6.1 Introduction
6.2 General approach of the need-area work
6.3 Structure of the need-area chapters
7 Need area 1: base materials
8 Need area 2: information and communication technologies
9 Need area 3: offices
10 Need area 4: food
11 Need area 5: households
12 Towards an integrated approach to PSS design
12.1 Introduction
12.2 What are the main differences in PSS versus normal business
systems?
12.3 What are the changes needed in business functions?
12.4 Where differs PSS design from normal business development?
12.5 What are the main pitfalls to deal with and do current methods
cover them?
12.6 What does this all imply for PSS development approaches?
13 Conclusions
13.1 Introduction
13.2 PSS in the market: opportunities and threats
13.3 PSS and sustainability: the (partially) scattered myth
13.4 Making the myth work: innovate the system, not just the business
model
13.5 In action: an outline for research, dissemination and policy
Annex 1: practical guideline to PSS development
Annex 2: tools, alphabetic
• Backcasting for exploring PSS
• Benchmarking
• Benefit planning roadmap: tool from the HiCS project
• Blueprinting: systematically describing a service
• Consumption chain analysis for generating new value propositions
(Macmillan and McGrath)
• Database(s) of PSS case studies
• Design plan: tool from the HiCS project
• Eco-efficiency analysis of a product-service
• E2 vector, quantitative assessment tool (Goedkoop 1999)
• Ecodesign: checklist for environmental assessment by econcept
• Eco-design portfolio: selection tool
• Ethnographic research
• Gap analyses for services
• INES tool (Improving New Services): tool from the Eco-efficient PSS
project
• Interaction storyboard: tool from the HiCS project
• MEPSS toolkit
• Meta-matrix for services: evaluation/assessment tool
• Opportunity recognition diagnosis: diagnosis modules of Prosecco
• Partnership co-ordinating tools: tools from the HiCS project
• Perceived service quality model, e.g. for car sharing
• Pragmatic differential tool: selection tool
• Pre-diagnosis: diagnosis modules of Prosecco
• Product service life-cycle information management and acquisition
• Progressive abstraction tool: creativity tool
• Profit pool (Gadiesh and Gilbert 1998)
• PSS innovation matrix
• Qualitative 4-axes expert panel: assessment tool (Goedkoop et al.
1999)
• Solution elements brief: tool from the HiCS project
• Solution scan: tool from the HiCS project
• Spider diagrams
• Stakeholders' motivation matrix: tool from the HiCS project
• Strategy canvas for generating new value propositions (w. Chan Kim
and Renée Mauborgne)
• Sustainability guidelines for PSS: tool from the MEPSS project
• Sustainability evaluation tool: tool from the Sustainable
Homeservices project
• Sustainable systems triangle (SST): assessment tool
• System assessment: tool from the HiCS project
• System organisation map: tool from the HiCS project
• Triple-bottom-line innovation audit tool
• Use cases of PSS: graphical representation: tool adapted by School of
Architecture and Design, Aalborg University
• Validation of life-cycle economic benefits of partner-based
solutions: tool from the HiCS project
• Value analysis/value engineering
• VIP approach (Vision in Product Development): scenario method
References
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To place an order for this title at a discount of 10%, or to view Part
1 ‘Product-services: the Context’ and Part 7 ‘Need area 1: Base
Materials’ online,
please visit the Greenleaf website at:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com/catalogue/suspro.htm
You can also request a review copy or inspection copy from this site -
see the home page:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com
*********************************
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