The Customer Knowledge Management Lifecycle in PSS Value Networks: Towards Process Characterization

Following a service orientation paradigm, value is no longer restricted to product functionalities. Value is in particular based on co-creation with customers, making use of their experiences and leading to so-called integrated solutions. The longitudinal view on relationships with customers requires networked collaboration of multiple partners with their mutual customers within the context of a product-service system (PSS) value network. A customer-centric view on solution offerings motivates PSS value networks to enhance their understanding of customers’ needs. To achieve a shared understanding of customers’ needs across a network, customer knowledge can be seen as a prerequisite. Prior research has been primarily focused on an intra-organizational perspective on customer knowledge management (CKM), in which customer knowledge (CK) is obtained in a one-to-one relationship. In the context of PSS value networks, besides the individual CK of each partner, CK is also co-created through the interaction of several partners with customers during solution processes. However, this asks for a broader conceptualization of CKM. Moreover, a long term relationship with customers demonstrates new opportunities for CKM. Hence, a firm-centric approach is inadequate for managing the network-level processes of CK creation, storage / retrieval, transfer, and application across a PSS value network. Based on a systematic literature review on both CKM within a PSS value network, and collaborative knowledge management, we present in this paper a conceptual framework of the value network customer knowledge management (VN-CKM) lifecycle. We will characterize its four main processes based on the novel characteristics of a PSS value network.