In the face of global competition and product commoditization, manufacturing firms are increasingly opening up to opportunities in the service markets. Despite the growing interest, many new product-service providers struggle to deploy open service innovation effectively, not least because they...

Commentators suggest that to survive in developed economies manufacturing firms have to move up the value chain, innovating and creating ever more sophisticated products and services, so they do not have to compete on the basis of cost. While this strategy is proving increasingly popular with...