Platform-Based Servitization: Reconciling Competing Growth Logics for Industrial Firms

Servitization and platformization represent distinct logics through which industrial firms pursue growth. Servitization increases value through close customer integration, whereas platformization drives growth through ecosystem orchestration and scalability. These logics involve an inherent tension between relational depth and scalable flexibility, which the service literature has yet to resolve. This study draws on a systematic cross-field review of 129 articles spanning service, marketing, management, and information systems to theoretically ground platform-based servitization. We contribute to servitization by explaining how four configurational archetypes—product–service, customer solution, innovation, and transaction platforms—drive growth through platform-based servitization. Through a series of propositions, we explain how the cumulative layering of these configurations supports reinforcing and transformative pathways to growth, while data network effects emerge as a central growth mechanism, and combinatorial governance helps manage tensions between competing growth logics. We also contribute to platform scholarship by highlighting relational depth with customers and service partners as a critical condition shaping B2B platform transitions. For managers, our framework provides a strategic roadmap for leveraging platforms to move from digitalized product–service offerings to scalable platform growth. Finally, our findings open a research agenda for service scholars to further explore platform-based servitization.