13th International Conference on Business Servitization (ICBS 2026)
12-13 November 2026, Granada, Spain
Focal theme: Servitization as a strategic response to high-tech commoditization
Venue: Carmen de la Victoria, University of Granada, Spain
Rationale
The acceleration of technological diffusion is reshaping competitive advantage. In high-tech industries, innovations that once provided sustainable differentiation are now rapidly imitated, standardized, and absorbed across global supply chains. Hardware becomes interchangeable. Software tools proliferate. Suppliers scale. Margins erode. What once constituted a competitive “moat” can quickly dissolve. This phenomenon—high-tech commoditization—poses a pressing strategic challenge: When technology becomes accessible to all, how can firms defend their competitive position?
The 2026 edition of the International Conference on Business Servitization (ICBS) seeks to explore how servitization can function as a strategic response to commoditization pressures.
Across sectors, firms are moving beyond selling products toward offering integrated solutions, outcome-based contracts, software-enabled services, subscription models, and data-driven value propositions. Rather than competing on the core technology alone, firms increasingly compete on complementary assets: ecosystems, platforms, installed base management, customer relationships, analytics capabilities, and organizational know-how.
Examples abound. Advanced manufacturers are embedding predictive maintenance, performance-based contracts, and digital monitoring systems into their offerings. Technology firms are building developer ecosystems and service layers around hardware architectures. Platform leaders orchestrate standards and partnerships that make replication difficult. In each case, competitive advantage resides not merely in the product, but in the service architecture surrounding it.
Yet servitization is not a guaranteed defence. Services themselves can be standardized. Platforms can reduce differentiation. Digital tools can accelerate imitation as much as they enable differentiation. The relationship between servitization and commoditization is therefore complex and potentially paradoxical.
In some cases, servitization deepens customer lock-in, increases switching costs, and stabilizes revenue streams. In others, it exposes firms to new competitors, higher coordination costs, or margin pressures. The strategic question is not whether to servitize, but how to design servitization strategies that resist technological erosion.
Despite extensive research on servitization’s links to productivity, innovation, financial performance, and sustainability, we know far less about its role as a defensive strategy in volatile high-tech ecosystems. The current competitive environment—characterized by AI diffusion, modular technologies, platform competition, and globalized supply chains—makes this question particularly urgent.
ICBS 2026 aims to advance this debate. We invite the servitization community to examine how firms can build, deepen, and sustain competitive moats through service-based strategies in environments where technological advantages are increasingly fragile
Submissions may address questions such as:
We particularly encourage contributions addressing topics such as:
1. Digital servitization, AI, and data
• How can AI-enabled services, analytics, and proprietary data loops help firms escape the high-tech commodity trap? Under what conditions do digital tools mitigate commoditization—and when do they accelerate it?
2. Competitive dynamics and strategic defensibility
• When does servitization strengthen competitive moats, and when does it erode them? How can firms design service architectures that increase switching costs and sustain differentiation?
3. Ecosystems, platforms, and complementary assets
• How do digital infrastructure, alliances, ecosystems, and standards function as strategic barriers? When do platforms enhance defensibility—and when do they facilitate imitation?
4. Organization, capabilities, and transformation
• What organizational changes and dynamic capabilities are required to transition from product-centric models to defensible service-based strategies?
5. Operations, supply chains, and governance
• How do outsourcing, modular supply chains, and infrastructure dependencies affect vulnerability to technological absorption or imitation?
6. Measurement, value capture, and performance
• How can firms assess the “depth” of their strategic moats? What are the financial and growth implications of commoditization-resistant servitization strategies?
Meeting venue
The meeting venue is Carmen de la Victoria, Carretera del Chapiz, 9, Albaicín, 18010 Granada, Spain.At least one of the authors must register and participate in the meeting once a paper is accepted.
Important dates
- Deadline for submitting extended abstracts (max 1000 words): May 31, 2026
- Notification of acceptance: July 22, 2026
- Date of conference: 12-13 November 2026
Paper submission guidelines
Manuscripts must be submitted electronically through the OmniaScience link: https://conferences.omniascience.com/Extended abstracts MUST adhere to the guidelines outlined in the "Extended Abstract Template" provided via the below link. Extended abstracts can be submitted ONLY in English. All academic presentations MUST be held in English.
Download Extended abstract template
