Sustainable Business Model in the Product-Service System: Analysis of Global Research and Associated EU Legislation

Abstract

The business fabric is trying to resolve the many transformations that have occurred in recent decades. Companies are obliged to offer new ways to meet the needs of the market. This situation has led to the creation of new business models that combine both competitiveness and sustainability. Among the most consistent strategies, the product-service system (PSS) stands out. A bibliometric analysis was carried out on 1088 documents during the period 2000–2020, to synthesize the knowledge base on PSS in a global context and analyse future trends. The results obtained have made it possible to identify the evolution of scientific production, the main drivers of this issue, the lines of research developed and their link with EU legislation and reveal some critical gaps in knowledge. The main lines of research describe different aspects of PSS: servitisation, product design, manufacturing, life cycle, circular economy, and sustainable development. This study has identified how its analysis has developed to date and what terms allow us to glimpse new approaches; hence, it is a useful tool for PSS researchers and sponsors who provide financial resources that allow new directions in this research.

Can the extension of the global value chain production length promote carbon emissions reduction in China's equipment manufacturing industry?

“…This means that the technological improvements brought about by management have not contributed to the reduction of carbon emissions, indicating that the advanced technologies learned from investing countries in the low-end production links of China's equipment manufacturing industry are mainly high-carbon technologies, and self-developed technologies are also high-carbon technologies, which shows that the improvement of production technology will still promote the increase of production carbon emissions (Dammert & Marchand, 2015 ). It further shows that the firms have improperly managed cleaner production activities, and the application ability of value-added service systems such as the Sustainable Product Service System (SPSS) needs to be improved (Batlles-delaFuente et al, 2021 ).…”

Product-Services for a Resource-Efficient and Circular Economy: An Updated Review

“…Regardless of the perspective from which it is analyzed, it is clear that the PSS concept has become more stable in the literature, as can be seen in Table 2. Author Definition [24] "PSS can separate value creation from material and energy consumption and thus significantly reduce life-cycle environmental impact compared to traditional product-only systems." [25] "(.…”

“…This paper uses [6]'s definition, which remains current and offers an integrative definition of PSS: a mix of tangible products and intangible services designed and combined to respond to consumer needs in a way that contributes to the development of a circular and sustainable economy. However, the practices that will promote a shift towards a PSS business model remain an open topic [30], and PSS implementation does not guarantee the dematerialization of the economy nor the decoupling of economic growth from excessive resource consumption and waste generation [24,26,35,36]. On this matter, Ref.…”

“…Various industrial sectors may have significant mitigation benefits from applying CE principles, especially through energy efficiency [11]. As a result, the CE concept has influenced PSS research, as a growing academic literature has explored how PSSs can facilitate the transition towards a circular economic system by incorporating product life extension, motivating the implementation of sharing platforms, and contributing to waste reduction strategies [8,24,52]. On the one hand, as a governing paradigm for business processes, CE allows companies to simultaneously concentrate on economic value creation and environmental considerations, garnering interest due to its potential to integrate business and societal goals [53].…”

Business Model Innovation Paths of Manufacturing Oriented towards Green Development in Digital Economy

“…For example, the leasing and sharing model can encourage enterprises to design products around durability and improved quality, make remanufacturing feasible, and reduce the total production of products and the demand for resources [ 66 ]. There is also the product service model, which provides value-added services for the product life cycle, separates value creation from material and energy consumption, and significantly reduces the impact on the environment compared with a pure product system [ 67 ]. In addition, some scholars point out that different upgrading pressures faced by enterprises will promote the formation of different green development orientations and then affect various types of performance with differentiated innovation paths [ 68 , 69 ].…”