Interplay between servitization and platforms: a longitudinal case study

The impact of servitization on trade credit in manufacturing firms: a signaling theory perspective

Purpose

The aim of this study is to empirically test the link between servitization and trade credit in manufacturing firms as well as the boundary conditions of this link.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a unique dataset of 4,974 observations covering 838 manufacturing firms publicly listed in the United States during 1990–2020, this study examines the impact of servitization on trade credit and the moderating impacts of financial slack and service relatedness based on fixed-effect regression models.

Findings

The authors find that servitization shows a U-shaped relationship with trade credit. Besides, financial slack negatively moderates this U-shaped relationship whereas service relatedness has no significant impact on this relationship.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to empirically verify the influence of servitization on trade credit in manufacturing firms based on longitudinal secondary data and signaling theory. The research findings can provide several important theoretical and managerial implications for scholars and practitioners in operations management.

Digital Adaptive Governance, Digital Transformation, and Service Quality in Logistics Enterprises

Infrastructure digital transformation may create value for logistics enterprises; but its whole process is still full of uncertainties. Prior research focused on smart control in view of the infrastructure and ignored the driving role of digital governance in the process of digital transformation. Here, the authors investigate the relationship between digital adaptive governance and digital transformation, and actively explore the effect of digitalization on service quality improvement in logistics enterprises. The authors take servitization as the moderator to examine the interaction between digital transformation and service quality. Through 227 valid responds of senior executives and workers at the production line from 46 logistics enterprises in China, the authors use partial least squares and hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses empirically. Results suggest that digital adaptive governance, infrastructure digital transformation and servitization have positive influence on service quality. Digital adaptive governance has positive influence on infrastructure digital transformation.