In today's service-centric landscape, it is essential for capital equipment manufacturersto understand the impact of new technologies on customer value and service businessperformance. With global customers demanding minimal equipment downtimes andcapital equipment manufacturers facing a shortage of field service experts, efficientremote service delivery is vital for industrial service operations. The recent introductionof Remote Augmented Reality (RAR) has expanded the toolbox of available remoteservice technology, facilitating collaboration between remote experts and on-sitetechnicians. The overarching goal of this PhD thesis is to contribute to theory buildingregarding the improvement of service business performance for capital equipmentmanufacturers resulting from RAR adoption. Specifically, the research aims to developand apply an RAR adoption model, and to establish the drivers of the adoptiondecision, as well as drivers of adopters’ satisfaction. To achieve the research objectives, an exploratory study rooted in the Technology–Organisation–Environment framework was employed to develop and apply a causalpredictiveRAR adoption model through a mixed-method research design. This involvedconducting a qualitative interview study of 16 companies to develop the RAR adoptionmodel. Subsequently, a quantitative questionnaire survey involving 132 companies wasconducted to apply the RAR adoption model. The analysis indicates that improvements to service case efficiency, might be predictedby perceived relative advantage and management support. The value creationarchitecture, along with technical challenges, customer readiness, skills gaps, theimpact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and service case efficiency, might predictimprovements to the value proposition offered to customers. Additionally, valueproposition might predict financial performance and image gains. Moreover, management support seems the main driver of RAR adoption decisions. Non-adoptersexhibit a lack of resource allocation in terms of personnel and management’s reluctanceto cover investment and costs, rather than low service business performanceexpectations or technical challenges. The dissatisfaction with a RAR implementationproject seems to stem from the misfit between RAR technology and the specific usecase (i.e., task-technology-fit). These findings indicate that RAR shares similarities with other remote servicetechnologies in terms of the anticipated opportunities for enhancing service businessperformance and the associated adoption challenges. Moreover, the required effortand extent of organisational change seem to differ depending on the service businessmodel operated, i.e., the level of servitization. The substantial effort required toadopt RAR may not be justified for all capital equipment manufacturers, primarily dueto a lack of task-technology fit. Therefore, service managers should thoroughly evaluatetheir applications and use cases before initiating an RAR implementation project.
| Date of Award | 15 Nov 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Sponsors | Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences |
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| Supervisor | Rakesh Mishra (Main Supervisor) & Artur Jaworski (Co-Supervisor) |
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