Servitization and Sustainability
Since industrialization, the human being has been consuming a huge amount of natural resources, and, at the same time, produced significant wastes. Sustainability of the human race has thus been shadowed. Countries around the world have been trying very hard to reduce the consumption of natural resources and increase the efficiency of resource usage. Dematerialization, the concept of reduction in the quantity of materials required to serve economic functions, thus attracted vast attentions. Among all the dematerialization practices, “servitization” (or servicizing) was one of the most frequently advocated by governments and businesses. This approach aims to reduce the consumption of physical goods, so as to dematerialize and bring considerable environmental benefits. However, how product firms can utilize servitizing to achieve sustainability remains an unanswered question.