IoT as PSS enabler: Exploring opportunities for conceptualization and implementation

Nowadays, product-service systems (PSS) as an integrated system of physical products and services play a crucial role in sustainable economies. In addition to high competitive global economy, emergence of new digital paradigms is supporting the shift towards servitization. Although the great potential of such paradigms are recognized by both practice and research, their implications for PSS is not clear yet. Particularly, features of Internet-of-Things (IoT) such as total connectedness and ubiquity of smart sensors and actuators provide various new opportunities for PSS. This study explores such opportunities by conducting structured literature review and 13 interviews. We formulate the findings into two folds. First, we introduce four degrees of IoT involvement in PSS business models and we elaborate the opportunities that they create for different types of PSS. Second, we present the key technologies and approaches, which IoT provides with regard to PSS lifecycle management.