Looking beyond the rim of one's teacup: a multidisciplinary literature review of Product-Service Systems in Information Systems, Business Management, and Engineering & Design

In the past, there has been a lot of research on Product-Service Systems (PSS) – integrated bundles of products and services. However, the topic has been basically independently discussed by researchers of different disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to integrate the results of the fields of Information Systems, Business Management, and Engineering & Design and hence to investigate the state-of-the-art in PSS research by conducting a structured literature review. In total 265 articles have been intensively analyzed. A unified core definition of the PSS term is derived as well as the notion of the concept in the three disciplines is explained and summarized. A meta-analysis of previous literature reviews completes the picture. Based on our data it is shown that the understanding of PSS is very different in the three disciplines. Therefore, a research agenda for future research is developed which includes for example the need for clarifying the terminology, changing perspectives, and conducting more evaluations. ► We investigate the state-of-the-art in Product-Service Systems research. ► Comparing results of 3 disciplines gives new insights into the whole field. ► A systematic literature review covering 265 articles is conducted. ► We derive a unified definition of the Product-Service System concept. ► We develop and present a research agenda for future research.