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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the strategic alignment between product variety and supply chain (SC) focus through cost leadership or differentiation to improve business performance.

The research investigated product variety-related capabilities and strategies in SCs including level of variety, SC agility, SC cost efficiency, cost leadership, differentiation and business performance, and aimed to justify the theory by testing structural equation modelling using survey data from the UK and South Korea.

Differentiation links high product variety and agile SC while cost leadership is aligned with low product variety and SC efficiency. High product variety negatively impacts on cost leadership strategy. Also, product variety should be mediated by cost leadership or differentiation strategy to improve business performance. Companies in South Korea display higher SC agility, cost leadership and cost efficiency than companies in the UK, while the UK companies exhibit a higher level of product variety and differentiation than those in South Korea.

The findings contribute to theoretical development of variety issues at the alignment of business strategy and SC management according to the level of product variety.

The findings can help international companies set up specific variety-related strategies to achieve global competitiveness.

Servitization centres on the transfer of risks from the customer to manufacturer. By providing real-time information about current and predicted health of a product in the field, remote monitoring technology can mitigate some of those risks. Although recognised as one of the key enablers of servitization, the mainstream servitization research community has shown very little interest in this topic. The aim is to identify and critically analyse relevant research addressing the topic of remote monitoring technology and servitization and, based on this analysis, propose an agenda to guide future research in this area.

The methodology adopted is literature review consisting of three steps: define purpose and research questions, select keywords and databases, and identify and analyse relevant papers.

Ten findings have been made, which characterise current state of research under categories of examples, benefits, and challenges of using remote monitoring technology to support servitized strategies. Several areas that call for further research are suggested, but general impression is that the understanding about the role and contribution of remote monitoring technology in service delivery and strategy is still in its infancy and much greater effort will have to be invested to change this. It is also suggested that this technology holds a great potential for service and business model innovation; hence, more research is needed to further the knowledge about these topics.

This paper qualifies as the first attempt to consolidate and analyse relevant research at the intersection of servitization and remote monitoring technology.

Remote monitoring technology (RMT) is widely acknowledged as an important enabler of servitisation however, there is a dearth of understanding about how RMT is used by manufacturing firms to support servitised strategies. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this important yet somewhat ignored topic in servitisation research. It attempts to address the following questions: what has constrained, and what has enabled the exploitation of RMT in the context of servitised strategies?

The research adopts an exploratory multiple-case study design. Four in-depth descriptive case studies of companies operating in aerospace, industrial equipment, marine, and transport sectors were conducted. The collected data were analysed and synthesised, drawing out conclusions.

The study describes how four manufacturers are using RMT and identifies ten factors that have enabled and constrained the realisation of expected outcomes. The enabling factors identified include: skills, experience, and knowledge; support from customers and other complementary data sources, processes, and structures; operations centres; historical data; and presence of in-house knowledge and capabilities. While the constraining factors include: defining benefits of RMT; limitations of RMT; limited understanding about true capabilities of RMT; knowledge management; and lack of alignment between services and manufacturing strategies.

While considerable attention and effort have been invested in designing and conducting the research and analysing the data from the case studies, more empirical work is required to validate and enrich findings and conclusions. For this purpose several research questions to guide further theory development in this area are formulated.

This paper is an in-depth study examining the role of RMT in supporting servitised strategies. In particular, it explores how this technology is used in practice to support service-oriented value propositions of manufacturers and identifies the factors that are key to successfully executing this strategy. As such it qualifies as one of the first studies of this kind.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the limitations of current accounting practices in an inter‐organisational context; introduce contemporary costing approaches used in inter‐organisational costing (IOC) programmes; and identify the inhibitors of successful implementation of IOC programmes.

The paper uses a structured review of empirical and theoretical literature.

Traditional accounting practices do not adequately fulfil their role in the inter‐organisational context. Contemporary accounting practices overcome only some limitations of traditional accounting practices. The paper uncovers part of the complexity surrounding the implementation of IOC programmes and suggests that we are dealing with a broad inter‐disciplinary phenomenon.

Conclusions are drawn on a conceptual level and further empirical investigation is encouraged.

The paper raises the awareness of the complexity surrounding the implementation of IOC programmes. The broad set of inhibiting factors could be effectively used by managers to assess the readiness of organisations involved in implementation of IOC programmes.

This research is the first that systematically addresses the problem of inhibitors in the implementation of IOC programmes. The broad scope of the paper sets the foundations for more focused research into specific inhibiting factors.