Purpose: Traditional notions of product and service modularity miss the link between the provider and customer. By recognizing the potential role of customer competences and activities in service modules, this study aims to investigate how modular services can enhance collaboration and value cocreation between the service provider and the customer.
Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative study of four Swedish manufacturing firms moving into service and integrated solution fields was conducted, with modular business services as the unit of analysis. Data was collected through interviews, focus groups, and participant observations. The gathered data enabled a conceptualization of modular services based on provider and customer components, activities, and competences.
Findings: The decomposition of services into modules is not only a decomposition of components; activities and competences must also be considered. In addition, given that services can be co-created, service modules may also include customer elements. This increases the complexity of the modules, but also the potential value for the customer and provider. The observation of customer-specific and supplier-specific parts of modules is an important finding with which to further develop modularity in a service context.
Originality/Value: The paper contributes to the emerging research field of service modularity by providing empirical insights into how service modularity can help achieve more efficient services. In particular, the paper addresses the need to recognize customer-specific activities and competences as a pivotal part of modular services. Such insights are particularly relevant given the established views ofservice modules as a function of intra-firm components.