Characterizing the trend towards Equipment-as-a-Service business models in B2B industries

Equipment-as-a-Service (EaaS) business models are garnering strong interest among manufacturers of industrial machinery and equipment, driven by the understanding that business model innovation can be an effective route to competitive advantage and superior performance. Achieving a stronger prevalence of EaaS offerings would be highly desirable from the perspective of environmental sustainability. There are growing pressures to reduce the environmental impact of industrial activity, and the EaaS paradigm provides opportunities to create, deliver, and capture value in a more environmentally sustainable way. Despite the extensive research conducted in the related fields of servitization and product-service systems, a systematic assessment of the rationales and changes that accompany the move towards EaaS business models in B2B industries is still lacking. This study, therefore, aims at synthesizing and structuring the extant knowledge regarding the adoption of such business models. Based on a systematic review of the literature, the study identifies twenty-four distinctive characteristics of EaaS business models and organizes them along seven key themes and four main dimensions relating to value drivers, economics, business relationships, and enablers. Research findings are consolidated to present six research propositions synthesizing the essential insights that emerge from the EaaS-related literature, while also revealing knowledge gaps that need to be addressed. This study offers an attempt to structure the EaaS domain, sum- marizing the key notions, identifying the principles and mechanisms, and providing ideas with the prospect of directing future research and supporting equipment manufacturers in exploiting EaaS opportunities for increased profitability and environmental sustainability.