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The decision concerning the degree of product and service customization is crucial, yet has scarcely been studied for small businesses in business-to-business (B2B) contexts. Although such a decision allows relationships with potential customers to be strengthened, it might involve high opportunity costs given the investment required. This paper aims to analyse the profitability of customization undertaken by small businesses in terms of cost–benefit and examine the drivers of profitable customized projects vis-à-vis the ability to strengthen relationships with clients (relationship investment and customer involvement) and the firm’s resources related to processes and technology (expertise and modularity).

To test the proposed hypotheses, data were collected from 140 small Spanish firms involved in two sectors characterized by the offer of customized solutions: information and professional, scientific and technical services.

Analysis reveals that customer involvement in the customized solution, even when it requires investing in equipment, time or human resources has a positive effect on customization and ultimately on profitability, as the cost of this customer interaction is lower than the revenue it provides. Likewise, supplier investment in the relationship allows for a solution that is adapted to the client, although it requires a cost associated with investing in specific assets. Such costs cancel out the positive indirect effect through the customized solution. Finally, expertise enables appropriate use of the flexibility derived from modularity to satisfy customer requirements, with both being key company resources for driving profitability through customized solutions.

This study makes a contribution to the domain of customization. The authors extend current knowledge on B2B customization by proving that small firms can use their available capabilities and knowledge to achieve a successful customization strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the transformation from service engagement through hotel consumption behavior to subsequent product purchases and identify marketing strategies to facilitate this transformation.

Using a 1.5-year data set of transactional data from a typical hotel firm, the authors examined 4,999 valid purchase events via ordinary least squares regression to test the hypotheses proposed.

Contrary to studies indicating that heavy hospitality users are resistant to external change, the authors found that hotel service engagement (in terms of recency, frequency and monetary value) significantly informed subsequent product purchases. Effects varied based on customized solutions and product purchase channel.

Product managers in hospitality should target customers who have recently patronized hotels as well as hotel customers with high monetary value and frequency. Managers can adopt distinct marketing strategies (e.g. customized solutions and purchase channels) to sell hotel customers more products.

Prior studies have framed the cross-selling of hospitality services as a vital revenue management strategy from hotel firms’ or frontline employees’ perspectives. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to test how hotels cross-sell tangible products by targeting customers engaging in hotel consumption and by examining two major product marketing strategies that may facilitate or hinder this cross-selling process.

Reports findings from a major study done by a Boston consulting firm showing four solution‐based market segments in high‐tech industries. They are the specialized solution, the customized solution, the value solution, and the packaged solution. One segment is the be‐first “contrarian” buyer. One segment responds to aggressive selling while another reacts to market pull. And the fourth segment is retail‐oriented. This article may be useful to both buyers and sellers of technology in emerging, unsaturated markets.

This paper aims to argue that, traditionally, service recovery attempts have paid little attention to customer preferences. Despite attempts to recover the customer, firms generally do not know if the recovery solution is what the customer expects. Hence, the paper seeks to examine whether customer recovery preferences influence customers' evaluation of the recovery attempt in terms of recovery satisfaction and repurchase intentions.

First, a two‐stage qualitative study was conducted. Then the research model was tested empirically on a sample of 431 consumers using a multivariate analysis.

The findings support the argument that customers have distinct recovery preferences. Moreover, customers are satisfied with the service recovery solution only when it matches the most demanding recovery preference. Customers' recovery preferences have a significant impact on their satisfaction with recovery and their repurchase intentions.

First, the model developed is tested on a cross‐sectional sample. Second, the measure of recovery satisfaction and repurchase intentions used here was relatively simple. Third, the study relies on repurchase intentions instead of actual behavioural data.

This research indicates that customers have a preference for how service recovery should be undertaken. Given these distinct recovery preferences, different recovery solutions should be applied to address each preference appropriately.

It is widely accepted in the service recovery literature that customers' perceptions of a service recovery attempt are often different to those of the service provider. However, this research suggests that customer recovery preferences need to be carefully considered given their effect on customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions.

This study aims to explore the interactions between two different and potentially complementary boundary resources in coordinating solution networks in a digital platform context: boundary spanners (those individuals who span interorganizational boundaries) and boundary interfaces (the devices that help coordinate interfirm relationships, e.g. electronic data interchanges, algorithms or chatbots).

The authors conducted a multiple case study of three firms using digital platforms to coordinate solution networks in the information communication technology and lighting facility industries. Data were collected from 30 semi-structured interviews, which are complemented by secondary data.

As task complexity increases, smarter digital interfaces are adopted. When the intelligence level of interfaces is low or moderate, they are only used as tools by boundary spanners or to support boundary spanners’ functions. When the intelligence level of interfaces is high or very high, boundary spanners design the interfaces and let them perform tasks autonomously. They are also sometimes employed to complement interfaces’ technological limitations and customers’ limited user ability.

The industry contexts of the cases may influence the results. Qualitative case data has limited generalizability.

This study offers a practical tool for solution providers to effectively deploy boundary employees and digital technologies to offer diverse customized solutions simultaneously.

This study contributes to the solution business literature by putting forward a framework of boundary resource interactions in coordinating solution networks in a digital platform context. It contributes to the boundary spanning literature by revealing the shifting functions of boundary spanners and boundary interfaces.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the underlying components of information technology (IT) that support different models of knowledge management (KM).

This empirical study is conducted in the management consulting industry to examine the important link between IT and KM. Based on previous research, four knowledge models were developed for the management consulting industry based on the knowledge type and service type. Data collected through a survey from 115 management consulting firms in the USA and Canada were analyzed.

Regardless of the type of KM model utilized, the most widely used IT by management consulting firms was the internet‐related technology (e‐mail, internet, and search engine). The second important IT component was data management technology (document management, data warehousing, data mining, knowledge repositories, and database management). The third important IT was collaborating technology (videoconferencing, workflow management, groupware, group decision support systems, and knowledge maps). The least important IT was artificial intelligence (expert systems, case‐based reasoning systems, intelligent agent, and neural network).

This paper develops a new topology of KM models based on the knowledge type (exploitive and explorative) and service type (standardized and customized). Thus, four KM models are developed: reuser (exploitive/standardized); stabilizer (exploitive/customized); explorer (explorative/standardized); and innovator (explorative/customized). While IT has been widely accepted as an enabler for KM, its application for a different focus of KM has not been explored.

Research demonstrates that servitization can achieve competitive advantages for firms; however, many firms are unable to achieve their target values due to various challenges. This study proposes a new model in which open innovation and co-creation are utilized to access consumer knowledge during the servitization process when developing customized services for international markets.

An online survey was used to collect the data from 150 manufacturing firms. The data were analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) approach.

The results indicate that open innovation positively affects servitization strategy. Moreover, consumer co-creation moderates the impacts of servitization on firm performance.

This study confirms the significant role of open innovation and consumer integration in the servitization process, establishing that managers should effectively integrate different stakeholders from the service design stage (through open innovation) to the service delivery stage (through co-creation).

The paper's results prominently advance the present body of servitization literature by showing how the implementation of open innovation improves the servitization process, an issue that has been ignored in previous studies. Moreover, it seeks to resolve the inconsistent results on servitization's effect on performance by indicating the role of consumer co-creation in the servitization–performance link.

While advances in big data analytics (BDA) provide valuable business insights and immense business value, many firms find it difficult to gain advantage from their BDA initiatives. Noting the strategic role of firm-specific knowledge, we develop a framework examining the relation between firm specificity of BDA knowledge and competitive advantage. We also examine the dynamic evolution of BDA capabilities and the associated knowledge management strategies.

We review the resource-based view (RBV), capabilities life cycles and absorptive capacity perspectives along with the literature on BDA competitive advantage. Identifying two key BDA factors, application customization and data proprietorship, we develop a BDA competitive advantage framework. We also investigate the absorptive capacities employed by firms to advance their BDA capabilities. We use anecdotal cases to support our theoretical arguments.

We propose that BDA solutions with vendor-based applications (noncustomized) and public data will not generate firm-specific knowledge and therefore not provide competitive advantage. In contrast, BDA solutions with custom applications and proprietary data will provide high-level firm-specific knowledge and potentially result in sustained competitive advantage. We further suggest the relevant absorptive capacities and the knowledge management strategies for BDA capability development.

Our framework provides managers with insights into how to develop and enhance firm-specific knowledge from their BDA solutions to gain competitive advantage.

Our study offers a new BDA firm-specific knowledge framework for competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the risks for manufacturing companies of extending their traditional goods offerings by the addition of different kinds of services.

The study develops a conceptual framework of nine propositions (and corresponding diagrammatic representations) of the relationships between: three kinds of risk (operational, strategic, and financial); and three strategies for the provision of added service (customisation, bundling, and broadening the range of offerings). This conceptual framework is examined empirically by qualitative analysis of data gathered in a three‐year longitudinal study of managerial representatives from nine multinational manufacturing firms engaged in the addition of services to their traditional goods offerings.

It was found that eight of the nine propositions are fully supported, and one receives equivocal support. In addition, several contextual factors are identified as moderating influences on the relationships between the three categories of service offering and the three classes of risk.

The study provides an original conceptual framework and nine research propositions that represent a useful starting point for the development of a formal theory of the risks of providing services.

The conceptual framework provides guidance for managers' assessments of the risks accompanying the infusion of added services to the traditional goods offerings of manufacturing companies.

The paper provides a novel conceptualisation of service innovation and attendant risk.

Increased competition and more extensive customer needs have motivated companies to develop integrated solutions. In practice, companies struggle to co‐create effective solutions that meet customer needs. The purpose of this paper is to identify critical factors affecting the effective co‐creation of customer‐focused solutions within business networks.

The study investigates the co‐creation of two different types of solution. Data were collected from two business networks comprising 13 companies, including suppliers and their customers. The empirical data comprise 51 interviews and observations made at 21 company workshops.

Effective co‐creation of solutions requires a fit between the perceptions of multiple suppliers and their customers with regard to core content, operations and processes, customer experience and value of the solution. Co‐creation is affected by, e.g. customer's preferences for participation and value, and the degree of competition, clarity of role division and rapport among the suppliers.

Further empirical research is needed to examine how companies could overcome the problems identified, and reap the opportunities arising from the factors affecting the co‐creation of solutions.

The paper presents a framework that outlines practical activities that help firms to reconcile the perspectives of different actors, and to facilitate the integration of resources when co‐creating solutions within business networks.

The paper contributes to the solutions literature by studying solutions as a network‐level process of resource integration between multiple suppliers and their mutual customers, and by applying a service concept framework to the study of integrated solutions.