Incumbent firms offering digital services: Insights and lessons learned from the automotive industry

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Regarding the current transformation within the automotive industry, connectivity is one of the major drivers. Meanwhile, incumbent OEMs have several years of experience in offering connected car services. Based on a multiple-case study of four incumbent automobile manufacturers, this article addresses the research question of what challenges occurred due to the introduction of digital services and how the firms responded to them. The findings are linked to one main explanatory approach. Due to their lack of experience in digital business, the OEMs tended to apply established principles from their core business. However, most of these dominant logics are unsuitable in the digital field, which explains the difficulties that arise and leads to important lessons learned. Agile methods, customer centricity, updatable platforms, more in-house development and value co-creation with partners were identified as changes in the way how the incumbent firms deploy and allocate resources. Copyright © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.