Dealing with Knowledge Management Practices in Different Product Lifecycle Phases within Product-service Systems

Abstract

Through semi-structured interviews in six companies, the current paper investigates the knowledge management practices in product-service systems from product lifecycle perspective. Knowledge requirements (types/sources), knowledge sharing, and knowledge reuse in both beginning-of-life and middle-of-life phases are our focus. Similarities and differences on knowledge management practices were found in the two phases. Our finding suggests that in the current digital era, in order to keep competitive, the knowledge requirements in different PLC phases should be clearly identified, the importance of people should be re-emphasized, external collaboration should be strengthened, and standardization should be advocated in the company.