The digital continuum: the influence of ownership, access, control, and Cocreation on digital offerings

Abstract

Digital offerings have provided new ways to experience what once were physical products. Such offerings have upended business processes by being less costly for firms to produce, store, and distribute. The ways in which consumers access them and interact with them have called into question traditional notions of ownership, access and control. This paper extends the thinking about digital offerings by proposing a Digital Continuum framework: a conceptual model anchored at one end by Digital Products and at the other by Digital Services. We discuss the benefits and costs that accrue to both consumers and firms along the Continuum that result from differences in ownership, access, control and customization/cocreation.

A Typology of Digital Offerings

“…Taxonomy development is well-recognized in the IS literature [31], and classification research related to digital offerings is found within data-driven digital services [32] and content-based digital products [33]. The literature explores variations in digital offerings [7], but no explicit typologies or taxonomies specific to digital offerings could be identified.…”

“…Extant literature shows a tendency to treat digital services, digital products, and digital offerings as relatively synonymous concepts. The notable exception is Micken et al [7], who offers a view of digital offering variations located along a continuum anchored at one end by digital products and the other by digital services. Thereby, all services/products are seen as offerings, but not all offerings are seen as neither services nor products (i.e., offerings is an umbrella term).…”

“…Rather, we advocate that digital service-product mixes are collapsed into digital offerings, and consequently value conceptualizations shift from the appropriation of value through exchange (products) and use (services) towards the appropriation of value through interactions (offerings). Instead of accounting for offering variations through a continuum that clings to the service vs. product terminology of the physical world [7], the typology of digital offerings aims to categorize mutually exclusive digital offering archetypes based on the inherent merits of digital offerings. In other words, we embrace digital terminology and categorization rather than attempting to transfer the terminology of the physical world to the digital realm.…”

“…This paper attempts to mitigate this shortcoming of prior work by broadening the scope of Information Systems (IS) research in terms of value appropriation through a typology of for-profit digital offerings that is grounded in Roman contract law. Furthermore, instead of accounting for offering variations through a continuum that stems from the dichotomy between products and services [7], the 'typology of digital offerings' aims to categorize mutually exclusive offering archetypes based on the intrinsic merits of digital offerings. In other words, we embrace digital terminology and categorization rather than attempting to transfer the terminology of the physical world to the digital realm.…”