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In servitization research, there has been a call to move further toward the development of business models based on a service approach. This article aims to answer this call by adopting service logic (SL) and developing strategies and organizational resources and processes to create a service-centric business model called servification, defined as the process of identifying and developing strategies and organizational resources and processes to create a business model based on SL.

This article is conceptual and extends servitization in the direction of service-centric business model innovation by drawing on and extending SL.

The article defines service as a higher-order concept according to SL and develops the concept of a helping strategy as the foundation for a service-based business model. Further, it develops a typology of organizational resources and processes that must be developed for the emergence of such a business model.

Since this article is the first to conceptually develop servification, more both theoretical and empirical research is naturally required. The development of servification takes servitization in the direction of service-based business model innovation and also contributes to the research on SL.

Servification enables the development of service-centric strategies and organizational resources and processes and service-based business models.

This article is the first to adopt SL in studies of business model innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to report a study on analysis of barriers for cyber-physical system (CPS) adoption in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

In Industry 4.0 scenario, Indian SMEs are struggling to bring their manufacturing processes in line with large manufacturing sector. CPS is considered as the backbone of Industry 4.0, and its implementation in SMEs will make significant changes pertaining to manufacturing automation. However, due to the lack of a proper CPS implementation strategy, SMEs face many challenges in its adoption. Hence, this study identified 18 possible barriers and seven performance measures pertaining to CPS adoption in Indian SMEs. Interpretive ranking process (IRP) is used to develop the contextual relationships among CPS barriers. IRP process include structured step-by-step matrix-based approach in which dominance among various alternatives is determined using performance measures developing a structured ranking model.

The developed IRP model revealed that CPS barriers “Lack of skilled manpower (CPSB2)” and “Lack of robustness with respect to environmental conditions in automotive environments (CPSB7)” are the most significant barriers (top two) hindering CPS adoption in SMEs.

In the present study, barriers for CPS adoption has been analyzed. In future, barriers for adopting other Industry 4.0 technologies could be analyzed.

The present research work is one of the few studies which analyzed CPS barriers in SMEs and provided improvement suggestions to the most significant barriers for its smooth adoption. The managerial and practical implications have been derived.

The analysis of barriers for CPS adoption in SMEs is the original contribution of the authors.

A small group of pioneering founders led the creation and early evolution of the service research field. Decades later, this article shares timeless service wisdom from ten of those pioneering founders.

Bowen and Fisk specified three criteria by which to identify a pioneering founder. In total, 11 founders met the criteria (Bateson, Berry, Bitner, Brown, Chase, Edvardsson, Grönroos, Gummesson, Parasuraman, Schneider and Zeithaml) and were invited to join Bowen and Fisk – founders that also met the criteria as coauthors. Ten founders then answered a set of questions regarding their careers as service scholars and the state of the field.

Insightful reflections were provided by each of the ten pioneering founders. In addition, based on their synthesis of the reflections, Bowen and Fisk developed nine wisdom themes for service researchers to consider and to possibly act upon.

The service research field is in its fifth decade. This article offers a unique way to learn directly from the pioneering founders about the still-relevant history of the field, the founders' lives and contributions as service scholars and the founders' hopes and concerns for the service research field.

This study examines whether Internet penetration has a complementary effect on the relationship between financial access and new business formation in 57 developing economies from 2006 to 2018.

Using the generalised least squares estimator, the authors employ a framework that allows us to distinguish between the marginal impact of financial access on new business formation in developing economies with high and low levels of Internet penetration rates. Furthermore, the authors distinguish between financial institutions and financial markets.

The authors find that increased accessibility for financial institutions promotes entrepreneurial activity, while financial market access has a negative relationship with new business formation. Furthermore, the authors find that the marginal impact of financial institution access increases in magnitude as Internet penetration increases. The effect does not hold for financial markets.

The major limitation lies in the measurement of new business formation, as it focuses on the formal entrepreneurial sector and overlooks the informal economy and entrepreneurs operating as sole proprietors.

Policymakers should continue to promote the development of the information communication and technology sector and digitalisation policy while increasing financial accessibility in the financial system.

This study provides new empirical evidence on the greasing role of technology to leverage the impact of financial access on new business formation. Furthermore, the study distinguishes this effect by differentiating between financial institutions and markets.