Bibliometric analysis of publications related to the term ‘servitization’ in operations management

Abstract

The term servitization has been used since the 1980s to explain the phenomenon of integration of services to products as an organization's business strategy. After nearly three decades of its definition, the servitization is still a concept with gaps to be defined. This article aims to describe the panorama of scientific literature on the term 'servitization'. With respect to the procedures adopted, we used the technique of bibliometrics, held in Scopus Database, between January 1988 and July 2015. Among the main results, it was found that a significant number of studies on the subject was held in European countries, involving 37 journals and 155 researchers from 22 countries. With respect to the methods and techniques used, it was possible to identify the prevalence of qualitative methods such as the case study. The keywords allowed to identify new terms, similar to servitization. In addition, it was revealed the absence of studies that consider servitization from the perspective of the end user.