A Proposal of an Integrated Framework for the Strategic Implementation of Product-Service Systems in Brazilian Industrial Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

The adoption of Product-Service Systems (PSSs) is an important strategy for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), although they face challenges connected to the scarcity of financial, human, and technological resources. Thus, this article seeks to propose a framework that integrates the barriers, drivers, innovation process, and business model elements associated with the adoption of PSSs in Brazilian industrial SMEs to offer guidelines for improvements to the strategies and practices adopted by such enterprises. The research adopted the Fuzzy Delphi method, applied to a panel of ten executives and managers of Brazilian industrial SMEs. This approach was employed to consensually validate a set of variables obtained from recent scientific literature. The results indicate that the adoption of PSSs by Brazilian industrial SMEs is influenced by structural, cultural, and technological barriers, yet driven by factors such as sustainability, customer relations, and competitiveness. Despite the acknowledgement of the importance of innovation, the processes remain little structured, with value proposition, the human factor, and stakeholder relations standing out as central elements in the business models. Through this study proposes specific strategic guidelines for four critical categories: provider enterprise, consumers, PSSs, and environmental aspects. Such guidelines can support managers in formulating practical actions for adopting PSSs, in addition to being replicable by other SMEs with similar characteristics. This research contributes to the literature originally by expanding the knowledge about the reality of PSS adoption by SMEs in emerging economies, thereby bridging a literature gap that still addresses their specificities generically.