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<p>Manufacturers increasingly combine more products, services, and digital technologies, yet accumulating more of these resources does not necessarily improve performance. This study uses configuration theory as an analytical framework and service-dominant logic as an interpretive perspective, combining fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis with machine learning to examine the nonlinear fit of 1,027 manufacturing firms in three resource attributes: form, scope, and rhythm. The results indicate that performance depends on configurational fit rather than resource accumulation. The study discovers three patterns: regarding form, digital intensity above a critical threshold can substitute for service depth under product complexity; in terms of scope, service breadth and depth as mutually constraining logics, their joint expansion forms a performance trough; in terms of rhythm, when product innovation is combined with deep services, incompatible resource rhythms will arise. These mismatches will be punished under market constraints (non-SOEs, globally engaged companies), but may be mitigated under institutional protection (SOEs). The study contributes a configurational account of servitization performance and offers managers a diagnostic logic: before adding more services or digital resources, assess whether the product, service, and digital elements fit.</p>

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When more is not better: Configurational fit of product, service and digital technologies in manufacturing firms

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月31日

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  • Wenyan Song,
  • Yue Zhu,
  • Caibo Zhou

摘要

Manufacturers increasingly combine more products, services, and digital technologies, yet accumulating more of these resources does not necessarily improve performance. This study uses configuration theory as an analytical framework and service-dominant logic as an interpretive perspective, combining fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis with machine learning to examine the nonlinear fit of 1,027 manufacturing firms in three resource attributes: form, scope, and rhythm. The results indicate that performance depends on configurational fit rather than resource accumulation. The study discovers three patterns: regarding form, digital intensity above a critical threshold can substitute for service depth under product complexity; in terms of scope, service breadth and depth as mutually constraining logics, their joint expansion forms a performance trough; in terms of rhythm, when product innovation is combined with deep services, incompatible resource rhythms will arise. These mismatches will be punished under market constraints (non-SOEs, globally engaged companies), but may be mitigated under institutional protection (SOEs). The study contributes a configurational account of servitization performance and offers managers a diagnostic logic: before adding more services or digital resources, assess whether the product, service, and digital elements fit.