Abstract:
With the emergence of the Industrial Internet of Things, a growing number of manufacturing firms has started to adopt
non-ownership business models (NOBMs). NOBM providers maintain ownership of offered machinery and sell only the
machine use and/or performance as a service to their clients. While the adoption of NOBMs is found to be associated
with novel business opportunities related to client-side uncertainties, it is also found to result in a considerable increase in
provider-side uncertainties. Drawing on a multiple-case study with three leading manufacturers, we find notable differences
in terms of NOBM designs, ranging from a primary focus on exploiting client-side uncertainties to a primary focus on
mitigating provider-side uncertainties. Moreover, our study uncovers four context factors that help explain key differences
in NOBM designs. In particular, we identify two machine attributes (human dependency and energy efficiency) and two
market attributes (average client size and antitrust regulations) that “push” providers toward either uncertainty-exploiting
or uncertainty-mitigating NOBM designs. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
