Gunter Lay was born in 1951 and studied business administration at the University of Mannheim, focusing on the topics of "Organization" and "Personnel". After obtaining his degree, he worked for two years as a scientific researcher with Professor Gaugler (University of Mannheim). In 1978, he started working at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, in Karlsruhe, where he developed the field of "Innovations in Production". His main areas of research, are technical and organizational innovations in production; how these diffuse, their economic and social impacts, and the evaluation of technology policy measures to promote them. He obtained his PhD in 1992 from the University of Kassel with the thesis titled "Changes in Work Organization and Job Content when Applying CAD".

Gunter Lay's research results have been published in a large number of professional journals. He is an invited member on a number of expert panels and advisory boards on ac-count of his many years of experience. Parallel to his work at the Fraunhofer ISI, he was offered lecturing assignments at the Universities of Strasbourg, Hanover and Kassel as well as the Technical College Schmalkalden. In 1996 he was awarded a visiting professorship at the University of Grenoble.

For the last 10 years, his research at Fraunhofer ISI has focused on the servitization of manufacturing industries. He analyzes the chances, risks and challenges associated with the transition to servitized business concepts. His findings have been presented at national and international conferences and workshops and in a number of publications. In industrial projects he develops and implements solutions for managing the strategic and operational tasks of servitizing especially for small and medium sized manufacturers.

Summarizes the "interim result" of the servitization activities in manufacturing industries building from early literature to recent challenges to present a balanced picture

Provides a solid introduction to servitization comparing literature and recent academic discussion and analyses across Europe also highlighting the discrepancies between the two

Explores these discrepancies considering companies' capabilities which are necessary for successful servitization and the specific characteristics of different sectors to compile a detailed picture of servitization for sectors and functions and indicate the practical implications for enterprises in manufacturing industries

Includes supplementary material: [...]