Servitization of Lithuanian agricultural cooperatives

To survive and be competitive in the changing economic environment, agricultural cooperatives are innovating and creating more sophisticated, added-value products and broadening the range of provided services. Lithuanian cooperatives, facing the same challenges, are less flexible and adaptable to changes due to short operational history and sparse membership. Therefore, the following scientific problem is addressed: do Lithuanian agricultural cooperatives still represent a shift to servitizing? The aim of this paper is to investigate the current state of servitization among Lithuanian agricultural cooperatives, and to frame directions for further research in this novel research field. The research relies on structured interviews conducted with Lithuanian agricultural cooperatives. The results of statistical data analysis indicate a slow shift of agricultural cooperatives towards servitization, particularly related to the provision of knowledge-based and adding-value services. Identification of general and personal causes of slow servitization among cooperatives is suggested for further researches.

JEL Codes: Q13, L80, O14, O31.

Keyword(s): service, servitization, product-service system, cooperative

Šumylė D.;Ribašauskienė E. 2017. Servitization of Lithuanian agricultural cooperatives. Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development = Vadybos mokslas ir studijos - kaimo verslų ir jų infrastruktūros plėtrai 39(4):510-523.https://doi.org/10.15544/mts.2017.35 (eISSN 2345-0355). [Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI); EBSCO; Business Source Complete; CAB Abstracts; Ulrich’s; DOAJ; OAJI; IndexCopernicus; ERIH PLUS; AcademicKeys.com; Google Scholar].