Overcoming the knowledge gaps in early‐stage servitization journey: A guide for small and medium enterprises

Although the move to more service‐oriented business can be beneficial even to smallerfirms, servitization in SMEs remains a largely unexplored topic. The authors contribute tofill this gap exploring how SMEs can overcome the knowledge gaps of servitization facedby companies in the early‐stages of this journey. By combining systematic literature reviewand expert panel methodology, the authors identify three knowledge gaps that hinderservitization initiatives in SMEs and propose a set of managerial recommendations totackle with these gaps. In particular, the authors suggest a structured plan of recom-mendations, and point out how each stakeholder can contribute to fill the mentionedgaps. The proposed actions are specifically suggested for SMEs and focus on greaterengagement of internal and external stakeholders. In addition to contributing to thedomain scientific research on servitization, the authors therefore respond to the call forapplication‐oriented research.