Research methodology implications in automotive PSS

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Total Quality Management & Business Excellence
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Methodology implications in automotive

product–service systems: a systematic literature
review
Omar Sabbagh, Mohd Nizam Ab Rahman, Wan Rosmanira Ismail & Wan
Mohd Hirwani Wan Hussain
To cite this article: Omar Sabbagh, Mohd Nizam Ab Rahman, Wan Rosmanira Ismail & Wan
Mohd Hirwani Wan Hussain (2016): Methodology implications in automotive product–service
systems: a systematic literature review, Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, DOI:
10.1080/14783363.2016.1150169
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Total Quality Management, 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2016.1150169
REVIEW
Methodology implications in automotive product– service systems: a

systematic literature review
∗
Omar Sabbagha , Mohd Nizam Ab Rahmana, Wan Rosmanira Ismailb and Wan Mohd
Hirwani Wan Hussainc
a
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & Built
Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia; bSchool of Mathematical
Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor,
Malaysia; cGraduate School of Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
Downloaded by [Omar Sabbagh] at 18:19 27 February 2016
The worldwide automotive industry sector has been experiencing a period of noticeable
growth and success, especially since overcoming the financial crisis in 2008; however,
this success is accompanied by remarkable erosion in the sales profit margin, causing
automakers to invest in the after-sales and product –service system (PSS) sectors. The
purpose of this review is twofold. First, it establishes an understanding of the
automotive PSS concept by summarising and discussing the objectives,
methodologies and findings of these studies. Second, it develops a framework to
classify 102 articles analysed in depth and dating from 1999 to 2015 according to
their adopted methodologies with an extended analysis of the most-used data
collection instruments and analysis tools. It is evident that there is a tendency to
utilise quantitative methods despite the expediency of implementing mixed methods
in recent studies. This paper provides meaningful insights into the research
methodologies, and for an audience consisting of general researchers and
practitioners with an interest in conducting research in the automotive PSS and
production disciplines, it represents a guideline to choose the appropriate research
methodology, taking into consideration the advantages and disadvantages of each one.
Keywords: automotive; quality management; after-sales service; customer
satisfaction; warranty
1. Introduction
Product – service systems (PSSs) are defined as a combination system of products, ser-
vices, networks and infrastructures developed to fulfil certain criteria of competitiveness
and a high level of customer satisfaction coherent with taking into consideration the
environmental impact issues (Williams,2007). The revolution in information and com-
munication technologies plays a remarkable role in upgrading the concept of product
orientation to service orientation; this creates a new integration between the products
and the services offered with a noticeable focus on customer demands and expanding
the market share (Boehm & Thomas, 2013). Consequently, the automotive industry is
not an exception to the aforementioned developments, as the majority of automakers
have switched their attention to the product – service business represented by after-sales
services. Whilst previous studies demonstrate that the after-sales market volume is
five times larger than the new product market volume (Bundschuh & Dezvane, 2003),
∗
Corresponding author. Emails: omarsabbagh.omar@gmail.com; mnizam@ukm.edu.my
# 2016 Taylor & Francis

2 O. Sabbagh et al.
after-sales services have the ability to magnify by three times the revenue of new products
during their lifespan (Wise & Baumgartner,1999). For instance, in Germany, the after-
sales sector produces more than 50% of the profit, whereas it accounts for only 23% of
the total revenue (Little, 2015). Furthermore, the after-sales business has become a reliable
indicator of customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention (Gallagher, Mitchke, & Rogers,
2005).
Nevertheless, tackling the product – service discipline requires scientific research that
adopts a specific research methodology; hence, three families of research methods are
recognised, quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, which combine both qualitative
and quantitative methods. All of these methods are systematic in the manner in which they
follow certain logical steps by which the researcher can draw a conclusion, rather than uti-
lising specific instruments for retrieving the information required for research (Khandker,
Koolwal, & Samad, 2010)
Qualitative studies have reached a mature status in the last two decades; researchers
attempt to understand how people convert their perceptions, build their space and evaluate
their experiences. Accordingly, the case study is the most common data instrument used to
extract information from research respondents (Merriam, 2009). On the other hand, quan-
titative studies use numeric values as they rely on samples and utilise specific data instru-
ments, such as surveys, experiments and observations, in addition to employing statistical
methods to analyse these data. As a result, whether the study is quantitative or not cannot
be judged by the data collection method; instead, quantitative studies depend on the data
type and the analytic tool used for the study, contrary to qualitative studies, which do not
allow statistical tools to be employed to analyse the results, rather employing segmentation
and categorisation measurements (Yu, Jannasch-Pennell, & DiGangi, 2011). The decision
to adopt the quantitative or the qualitative method is attributed to certain factors; for
instance, a limited number of respondents can be compromised by quantitative
methods, in contrast to qualitative methods. Besides, the researcher’s preconceptions
and attitude should be completely isolated from qualitative studies, whilst the researcher
himself is requested to understand and live in the environment in which his study takes
place; alternatively, quantitative studies require less time to understand the studied
environment (Hancock & Algozzine, 2006).
Mixed methods are considered the third research paradigm, having gained popularity
in different fields due to their implications in applied research and their capability of
answering research questions in a comprehensive way. They produce a synergy of quan-
titative and qualitative knowledge in such a manner as to motivate creative thinking.
Mixed methods employ various types of data to perceive and analyse problems in a
way that integrates texts and numbers within a rigorous framework demonstrating effec-
tive and complete representation of the studied phenomena (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2010).
This study provides meaningful insights into the automotive product – service system
(PSS) and production disciplines by investigating the state of the art of related published
articles. It aims to conduct a systematic review of how automotive PSS studies adopt the
research methodologies. Therefore, the purpose of this review is (1) to summarise the main
studies in automotive PSS discipline by developing a framework capturing the relevant
articles; (2) to provide an overview of research methodologies and data collection instru-
ments; (3) to provide a critical analysis on each employed research methodology; (4) to
develop a conceptual framework in which the selected articles are sorted; (5) to draw a
conclusion on the most preferred research methodologies and data collection instruments
in automotive PSS; and (6) to recommend further investigation in this discipline. Hence,
this study holds value not only for the academics and the practitioners involved in PSS
Total Quality Management 3
discipline, but also for researchers seeking for widening their knowledge in research meth-
odology paradigm.
2. Research methodology
‘A literature review is a systematic, explicit, and reproducible design for identifying, eval-
uating, and interpreting the existing body of recorded documents’ (Fink, 2014, p. 3). The
methodological approach is becoming popular for constructing systematic review papers
tackling several disciplines (e.g. social science, medicine and engineering). On the other
hand, over the last 16 years, PSS studies have increased remarkably due to their ability to
examine several topics with the same scientific concept (Reim, Parida, &Örtqvist, 2014).
The search for articles is mainly conducted using the online journal databases Scien-
ceDirect, Scopus, Wiley Interscience, Emerald and Google Scholar to outline unpublished
research. The database encompasses the research from several publishers including Else-
vier, Emerald, Srpinger and Wiley. Figure 1 illustrates the percentage of the utilised
database.
This article provides an interdisciplinary overview of the methodological structure of
automotive PSS research papers using an organised and reliable framework to synthesise
comprehensively the research that operationalises specific questions retrieved from the lit-
erature survey:
(1) What are the research methodologies employed in the automotive PSS discipline?
(2) What are the most used data collection instruments?
(3) What are the most used analytical tools?
(4) Finally, what are pros and cons for each data collection instrument and how to
compromise the downsides for each one?
The search dimension is restricted to the keywords: automotive, product service, after
sales, production, warranty, quality, supply chain and remanufacturing, which the authors
adopt. Reimet al. (2014) proposed three steps in conducting the systematic literature
review in PSS disciplines that are used as a foundation to conduct this study. In the first
Figure 1. The percentage of selected articles from electronic database.

4 O. Sabbagh et al.
step, the authors identify the publications, then they apply the theoretical screening con-
straints, and in the third step, the final filtration and the reference analysis are presented.
Step1: Identify the publications and apply the screening ontology
In this step, the authors apply the first screening criterion that guarantees the high
quality of publications to be considered in this study. Thus, working papers, books,
reports and commentaries are ignored to focus only on journal articles (Seuring &
Müller, 2008). Besides, English written papers are only included, whereas no preference
is given to the journal ranking as long as they are all indexed in Scopus and ISI. To define
clear boundaries delimiting the research, the authors use certain keywords: after sales,
product service, remanufacturing, supply chain, warranty service and servicisation. This
research considers 502 published articles eligible for the analysis step. Figure 2 presents
the framework of selecting the articles.
Step 2: Apply the screening constraints
As the goal of this study is to tackle the automotive PSS, the authors accept empirical,
conceptual and theoretical publications as well as literature review studies. Furthermore,
the accepted publications provide explicitly a discussion about automotive business in
terms of manufacturing, service and reuse. However, to ensure the validity and reliability
of the study, the authors discuss the analysis protocol with experts from inside and outside
the discipline. The articles are chosen after placing the publication date constraint from
1999 to 2015. As a result, 102 articles are considered for further analysis.
Step 3: Final filtration and reference analysis
In this step, 102 published articles matching the study criterion are downloaded and
intensively analysed in terms of the study objectives, findings, research methodology,
data collection instruments and data analysis tools. The articles are classified according
to the adopted research methodology in each study with a special focus on the research
methodology’s philosophical background; then the authors provide a constructive criti-
cism for the adopted methodologies in the manner that discusses the pros and cons for
each one.
3. Descriptive analysis
The main body of the systematic review comprises 102 papers dating from1999 to 2015.
Figure 3 depicts the percentage of the published articles tackling the automotive PSS dis-
cipline over the last 16 years, which experiences a noticeable incline in the general trend
line.
On the other hand, the distribution of the scrutinised papers by journal shows that the
automotive product, service and production topic are scattered across 39 journals and Pro-
cedia conferences, which reflects the wide acceptance of the topic among the journals, as
shown in Figure 4. The Journal of Cleaner Production is the leader in this domain and pro-
duces about one-quarter of all the papers considered.
The authors propose a framework to classify the studied papers according to their
research methodologies employed; hence, the articles fall into three main groups: qualitat-
ive, quantitative and mixed methods. Then, the data collection instrument and the most
Figure 2. Framework of selection criteria.
used analytical tools are discussed in depth to conclude with a constructive critique of each
research methodology. Figure 5 depicts the content classification framework.
In general, the quantitative methodology is the dominant method employed within this
topic, with 68%, followed by the qualitative methodology, with 25%, and finally the mixed
methodology, with 7%, as shown in Figure 6. This indicates the bias towards the use of
quantitative methods in the topic’s research; however, despite the minority of papers
6 O. Sabbagh et al.
Figure 3. Articles’ distribution over the time frame.

adopting mixed methods, the average incline in the utilisation of such methods is notice-
able in the automotive PSS context, as shown in Table 1.
4. Analysis of literature
4.1. Qualitative methodology
Qualitative research can be identified as: ‘an umbrella term covering an array of interpre-
tive techniques which seek to describe, decode, translate, and otherwise come to terms
with the meaning, not the frequency, of certain more or less naturally occurring phenom-
ena in the social world’ (Merriam, 2009, p. 13). Nevertheless, qualitative research focuses
on understanding the thoughts that people have built and tries to interpret them in such a
manner as to retrieve answers to proposed research questions; consequently, the main
research instrument for retrieving data is people. The primary characteristic of qualitative
research is inductive, which means that researchers construct theories and develop hypoth-
eses through making observations and interpretations; hence, typical qualitative results are
Table 1. Research methods’ distribution over the time frame.

Year Quantitative Qualitative Mixed Sum Percentage
1999 2 0 0 2 2
2000 1 0 0 1 1
2001 2 1 0 3 2.9
2003 1 0 0 1 1
2005 5 1 0 6 5.9
2006 2 0 1 3 2.9
2007 1 3 1 5 4.9
2008 8 1 0 9 8.8
2009 4 3 2 9 8.8
2010 5 3 2 10 9.8
2011 7 3 0 10 9.8
2012 13 3 0 16 15.7
2013 10 4 1 15 14.7
2014 6 3 0 9 8.8
2015 2 1 0 3 2.9
Sum 69 26 7 102 100
Figure 4. Articles’ distribution on journals.
in the shape of concepts, themes, typologies, categories and tentative particular theories. In
this context, the form of data is purely descriptive, like words and images. In qualitative
research, the case study is the most common instrument to collect data, and the most
common approaches in qualitative research are basic, phenomenology, grounded theory,
ethnography, narrative analysis and critical qualitative research (Yin, 1998).
8 O. Sabbagh et al.
Figure 5. Content classification framework.

Figure 6. Research methods’ percentage.
In the PSS discipline, the majority of research falls into the basic qualitative and
grounded theory categories, whereas the remaining approaches are not frequently
adopted. In basic qualitative research, the researchers aim to perceive the phenomenon
that they are studying and then retrieve meanings, while the data are collected by conduct-
ing interviews, observing incidents and analysing documents. In grounded theory, the
main data source instrument is the investigator himself, who adopts an inductive stance
and extracts the results from the collected data to build a theory; thus, it is named grounded
theory. However, the uniqueness of this qualitative research is that the focus on developing
theory while collecting data can be varied by conducting interviews, making observations
and using other documentary materials (Tewksbury, 2009).
4.1.1. Case study

A case study is defined as a deep, descriptive and analytical study in a bounded system; it
investigates a current phenomenon in a reality context with empirical merit, and the
boundaries between the reality context and the studied phenomenon are ambiguous
(Hancock & Algozzine, 2006). A case study describes phenomena existing in a
bounded context by which the study is constrained, and this can specify the unit of analy-
sis. In this regard, case studies are characterised by investigating phenomena that are con-
strained by time and space by implementing a richly descriptive style. Nevertheless, the
questions addressed in case studies are ‘how’ and ‘why’; accordingly, case studies are por-
trayed as explorative rather than confirmative (Yin, 1994). Furthermore, certain research-
ers cluster case studies according to the objectives of the study: historical vs.
observational, intrinsic vs. instrumental and single vs. multiple case studies (Merriam,
2009).
In the historical type, researchers scrutinise specific experiences in a deeply descriptive
analysis over a certain period of time, coherently with the historical point of view, whereas
in the observational type, the main data source is respondents’ observations in relation to
10 O. Sabbagh et al.
informal interviews or documents. On the other hand, intrinsic research is performed due
to the interest in studying a specific phenomenon without a big focus on developing a
theory or perceiving the case itself, contrary to the purpose of an instrumental study, in
which the researcher intends to explore experiences and retrieve generalisability. The
case itself represents a secondary interest and it is normally conducted in association
with the multiplecase-study type, which is also named the cross-case, multi-case and
multi-site study type. The data in this type of study are collected and analysed from
several cases, which can include embedded sub-cases. The results of such types of case
study can increase the generalisability and validity of the findings (Jack & Baxter,
2008). Table 2 demonstrates the case study types in the PSS discipline.
Overall, it is noticeable that the historical case study is not very common in the auto-
motive product service domain, whilst observational types are more frequent in addressing
automotive PSS problems. However, a lack of generalisability is the main pitfall from
which the observational case study type suffers; thus, researchers tend to reinforce the
results obtained by executing a survey to achieve the required validity. Nevertheless,
intrinsic and instrumental case studies are very common in the PSS domain; they deal
especially with outlining remanufacturing processes and investigating production
systems. The intrinsic type could provide deep insights to explain the studied phenomena
once the researcher has chosen the right respondent, however, and complying with the goal
of intrinsic case studies, the related results generate rich descriptive cases without imply-
ing concise hypotheses or drawing applicable conclusions; hence, some studies require a
quantitative study to support their findings in developing conclusions. On other hand, the
instrumental type produces consistent results supported by background theory; but the
individuality of the studied cases prevents the researchers from implying the related find-
ings in a wide range of situations, so researchers are requested to conduct more case
studies and questionnaires to validate the developed hypotheses. In this regard, a multiple-
case study proves to be a good tool to enhance the breadth of the study; it is usually used to
investigate popular phenomena in a specific country (e.g. Volkswagen (VW) in Germany,
the automotive market in Malaysia and alternative fuel in Brazil). Several researchers
adopt a single embedded case study as they have a sub-analysis unit for examining the
findings that is supported by a survey, but the lack of generalisability is still the main draw-
back in these studies.
4.1.2. Grounded theory

In this type of qualitative study, the main focus is on developing a theory rather than pro-
viding a rich description. The data source varies from interviews and observations to docu-
mentary materials (Merriam, 2009). Table 3 shows the grounded theory research in PSS.
To conclude, grounded theory studies represent a helpful tool for investigating cases
about changing processes over time. They are mainly followed in the case of observing
phenomena; hence, they require a high volume of data to be collected to develop
theory, whereas the data analysis is limited in performing a comparative study and
finding interrelations among variables. Moreover, the applicability of the findings is still
ambiguous due to a lack of validation processes in the research.
4.1.3. Data analysis technique

In qualitative studies, researchers employ certain data analysis tools to generate results and
develop hypotheses. The most common analysis tools are text mining, DEMATEL and the
Table 2. Case study types in the PSS context.
Case study type Author Objective Findings
Observational case study Zapata and Investigate the implications of alternative (1) The innovations should be
Nieuwenhuis (2010) powertrain technologies, ethanol and comprehended by an economical side to
biofuel in Brazilian automotive be implemented
manufacturers and hybrid technology in

Toyota
Observational case study Mayyas, Qattawi, Review the reported literature on (1) This study summarises the model
Omar, and Shan sustainability of automotive end of life, developed by providing criticism and
(2012) life cycle and disposal in association discussing the physics behind these
with the environmental impact models
Observational case study Seuring and Müller Carry out a systematic literature review on (1) Provides an insight into the sustainable
(2008) sustainable supply chain management supply chain limitations in published
articles
(2) Green environmental issues are very
frequent in academic research
(3) Social dimensions of SCM are very rare
in literature
Observational case study Beuren, Gomes Conduct a literature review on PSS (1) This study provides an insight into PSS
Total Quality Management

Ferreira, and field, the theoretical work is still the
Cauchick Miguel dominant part of the published articles,
(2013) while the empirical research ise still
required
Observational case study Hatcher, Ijomah, and Conduct a literature review on (1) The necessity of initialising lifecycle
Windmill (2011) investigating the relation between thinking during the product design phase
remanufacturing and product design in
the automotive industry
Observational case study Kumar and Putnam Investigate the supply chain loop in the (1) Identify the market drivers for recycling
(2008) product life cycle process
11
(Continued)
Table 2. Continued.
12
O. Sabbagh et al.
(2) Develop end-of-use lifecycle practices
(3) Involve supply chain in redesigning and
disassembling phases of products
Observational case study Reim et al. (2014) Report the presented model in PSS context (1) PSS field is still having a potential in
by conducting a systematic literature academic research
review (2) Propose a future research
Observational case study Koplin, Seuring, and Address the integration between the (1) Confirm that integration is useful for
Mesterharm (2007) sociotechnical side and the greenness eliminating environmental damage and
standards with supply management in decreasing social problems
one of biggest automakers, VW AG
Intrinsic case study Aoki, Staeblein, and Compare the features of automotive (1) Discuss the Japanese production model
Tomino (2014) production systems in Japan and and its trade-off link with sales activities
Germany (2) German automakers could maintain a
considerable balance between
production, sales and purchasing,
whereas Japanese makers tend to
concentrate on the production side by
implementing a pull system. The
research lacks a discussion of the product
development phase, showing the
necessity of conducting more case
studies to generalise the results
Intrinsic case study Saranga (2009) Investigate the organisational performance (1) Detect inefficient operation in Indian
from two perspective: OEM and automotive companies
suppliers (2) The necessity of reform labour laws,
which are significantly affect the
efficiency
Intrinsic case study, semi-structured Lettice, Wyatt, and Investigate the buyer –supplier (1) The willingness of the mutual investment
interview Evans (2009) relationship in the VM automotive relation is noticed; however, in the long
company and its suppliers through term, VM envisages reducing the
conducting semi-structured interviews investment in its suppliers and reducing
the cost, whereas the supplies tend to
expand their investment in VM
Intrinsic case study, semi-structured Bergenwall, Chen, and Comparing the sustainability of the Toyota (1) Examining the sustainability principle
interview White (2012) Production System (TPS) with the measured by three dimensions:
American production system. economic, social and environmental
(2) The TPS seven ways are not completely
implemented in American
manufacturers, causing weak
performance indicators and a low
sustainability level
Intrinsic case study, semi-structured Marksberry, The compatibility of the TPS levelling (1) Highlight the integration between
interview Badurdeen, and system with the market demand technical staff and management to
Maginnis (2011) achieve the product levelling target
(2) Toyota could achieve the targeted
product levelling by implementing an
integrated sociotechnical system,
however, and to achieve more robust

results, quantitative research has to be
conducted in this discipline
Intrinsic case study, fully structured Rahman and Tannock Investigate the progress of implementing (1) The study detects distinctive approaches
interview (2005) the TQM practices in Malaysian SMEs of TQM practices in SMEs
Instrumental case study, Makarova, Develop a decision-making plan for spare (1) There are several factors that influencing
Khabibullin, parts supply chain the model workability
Belyaev, & Belyaev (2) The model should consider both the
(2012) function and the indicators
Instrumental case study, semi- Doran (2001) Detect the difference between JIT and (1) Provides meaningful insight into the
13
structured interviews synchronous supply from two relationship between Nissan
(Continued)
14
Table 2. Continued.
O. Sabbagh et al.
perspectives in Nissan Co.: buyer and manufacturer and one of its suppliers
supplier Physical location plays a remarkable role
in the supply process
Instrumental case study, 130 Seitz (2007) Examine the applicability of classic (1) The findings form a basic theory to
interviews motives of remanufacturing proceed in this field
Two intrinsic case studies Saavedra, Barquet, Remanufacturing process characterisation (1) Investigate the remanufacturing
Rozenfeld, in Brazil operations, marketing, reverse logistics
Forcellini, and and relationship with suppliers used to
Ometto (2013) merchandise used parts
(2) A partnership between an OEM and an
independent remanufacturing company
can generate a mutually beneficial
relation, whereas the main factor in
promoting the remanufacturing business
is the governmental support. Generalising
such results is not applicable due to
limited numbers of case studies
Instrumental research case study in Williams (2005) Adaptation of the micro-factory retailing (1) Highlights the positive impact on
one automotive steel body factory process (MFR) to PSS to achieve high sustainability through integrating PSS
sustainability with MFR; however, more rigorous
research should be performed to
generalise the result rather than
considering other factors in optimising
the related process
Instrumental case study, semi- Subramoniam, Develop a strategy for remanufacturing (1) Address several propositions for
structured interviews with five Huisingh, and processes in association with customer- developing a remanufacturing strategy
decision-makers to identify the main Chinnam (2009) oriented after-market service and Encourage industrial companies to utilise
environmental perspectives
factors in the remanufacturing a framework tool for remanufacturing
decision decision-making
Multiple case studies Wuest, Liu, Lu, and Examine the application of stage gate (1) Stage gate model can improve the quality
Thoben (2014) model in the production context level

(2) The success is constrained with
considering the good adaption and the
individual requirements
Multiple case study Kurdve, Zackrisson, Integration of environmental management (1) The suggested synergy has a positive
Wiktorsson, and (EM) and quality with the production impact on manufacturers. Requires more
Harlin (2014) management system holistic research to define the integration
strategy precisely
Exploratory multiplecase study Saccani, Johansson, The structure of the after-sales supply (1) Three main criteria are discussed:
and Perona (2007) chain vertical integration, centralisation and
activity decoupling and the impact of
supply chain elements. A limited number
of case studies are conducted to build the
hypothesis; hence, it requires empirical

quantitative research to strengthen the
results and present a rigorous study
Iterative triangulation case study Aláez-Aller and Investigate the change in supply chain (1) Supply chain strategies do develop
Longás-Garcı́a strategy by scrutinising the relations (2) The supply change strategy by
(2010) with suppliers automakers is related to the acquired
experience
Note: OEM, original equipment manufacturers; SMEs, small and medium-sized enterprises; VM, vehicle manufacturer; JIT, just in time.
15
Delphi technique. Text mining is an analytical tool used to extract significant information
from text by defining and discovering noticeable patterns. It is mostly used with grounded
theory by which the researcher can cluster ideas, develop concepts and delineate a
phenomenon or process (Yu et al., 2011). On the other hand, DEMATEL is utilised to
analyse complexity in structural models that contain causal relationships among their
complex factors (Xia, Govindan, & Zhu, 2015). Finally, the Delphi method is a structural
communication process utilised to retrieve results based on experts’ judgements on
research questions (Linstone, Turoff, & Helmer, 2002). Table 4 demonstrates the data
analysis techniques utilised in PSS.
To sum up, text mining proves to be a useful tool for analysing and decoding huge
amounts of data, especially in the automotive after-sales department; however, the
Table 3. Grounded theory cases in PSS.

Qualitative
research type Author Objective Findings
Grounded theory/ Juehling, Combine service and (1) Develop an interface
observational Torney, technology strategies matrix that associates
documentary Herrmann, using cross-linked workshop objectives
and Droeder thinking to visualise the and vehicle
(2010) intersectional relation technology
between the service (2) Sensitise the product
sector and the car feasibility in the
workshop technology manufacturing phase
(3) The implementation
of this framework
remains the big
challenge
Grounded theory/ Williams (2007) Investigate the impact of (1) Construct a review of
observational PSS on system contemporary and
classification innovation in the future PSS initiatives
automotive industry and measure the
contribution of each
type of these
initiatives
(2) Practical activities of
PSS have a positive
impact on innovation
systems
(3) Confirm the
feasibility of
delivering the
innovation system in
the automobile
industry with more
than one method
provided with more
diligent work on the
delivery of functional
results
outcome of text mining is still related to the individual experiences from which the data are
collected. DEMATEL is considered to be an efficient method for analysing decision-
making problems and industrial planning; besides, it is utilised effectively in MCDM
(multi-criteria decision-making) to establish interdependences among the studied criteria
(Chung-Wei & Gwo-Hshiung, 2009), whilst the Delphi method is only used to solve
uncertainty cases in which the collected data sources require validation.
As a result, qualitative studies are well exploited in the automotive PSS discipline as
they provide deep insights into specific phenomena and problems; nevertheless, the
authors detected an obvious tendency to utilise only two types of qualitative methods –
basic qualitative research and grounded theory, whereas the other qualitative methods,
such as phenomenology, ethnography, narrative analysis and critical research, are some-
what neglected by researchers. This can be attributed to the practicality and scientific
merit of the product – service paradigm in addition to the availability of data that represent
the decision-making criterion. Moreover, the case study tool is the preferable data collect-
ing tool, which can be supported with a survey or Delphi study, depending on the research
case, to validate the results and increase the implications of the extracted hypotheses.
Meanwhile, the text mining tool is the most used in the case of huge amount of verbatim
text data being available, so this tool is the most efficient one to tokenise texts and assign
codes. On the other hand, qualitative methods, especially case studies, still suffer from
individuality and a lack of generalisability, which motivate the researchers to reinforce
their studies with numerical evidence.
4.2. Quantitative methodology

Quantitative research is ‘Explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are ana-
lysed using mathematically based methods in particular statistics’ (Muijs, 2010, p. 1).
Quantitative methods are characterised by the collection of numeric data and the appli-
cation of statistics-based methods to analyse the data and extract results (Cohen,
Manion, & Morrison, 2000). The philosophical foundation of quantitative methods is deli-
neated as realist and positivist, and this requires the researcher to be unbiased and
decoupled from any preconceptions that could affect the research process. Quantitative
research is concerned about increasing the generalisability of findings and stretching
objectives as it focuses on extrapolating values and trends, whereas the main targets of
studies are to test hypotheses derived from data collected by certain methods (e.g.
surveys) and answer the relevant research questions; in other words, quantitative research
has a deductive nature (Harwell, 2011). Quantitative methods can be divided into surveys,
observational studies and experiments (Khandker et al., 2010).
4.2.1. Quantitative methods

4.2.1.1. Survey. A survey is a method to collect information from targeted people by
posing questions that match the researcher’s objectives by distributing questionnaires (Cres-
well & Knight, 2009). However, in quantitative methods, it is common to use structural
questions with closed-ended questions; besides, questionnaires should undergo a pretest
step, namely a pilot study, in which the researchers assure the compatibility of the research
protocol with the questions and the proposed data collection instrument (van Teijlingen &
Hundley, 2001). Table 5 presents the reported pilot studies in automotive PSS.
Low cost, easiness of acquiring information, feasibility of completing the questions by
respondents, flexibility in responding time, avoidable bias and testing hypotheses are the
18
Table 4. Data analysis techniques in PSS.
Data analysis technique Author Objective Findings
O. Sabbagh et al.
Text mining/observational case Rajpathak (2013) Explore the best repair practices complying (1) Develop a tool to assist technicians to take
study with fault diagnosis codes prompt and correct decisions
(2) The proposed system interlinks the
rectification actions with failure symptoms,

modes and parts to retrieve the best practice
actions matching both criteria
Text mining/observational case Chougule, Rajpathak, Propose a framework for optimising the (1) Detect the anomalies causing customer
study and Bandyopadhyay service and repair quality dissatisfaction by integrating rule text mining
(2011) with case-based reasoning to uncover the
problems’ root cause and develop the
matching best practice accordingly
(2) The framework proved to save time in the
repair process
(3) It requires more investigation in associating
the number of visits to detect the incurred
anomalies
Combine an association mining Khare and Chougule Optimise the repair practices by comparing (1) The research used only the 20 most repetitive
tool with ontology-based text (2012) the remedies performed with the repair symptoms observed in mid-sized automotive
mining/observational case codes in repair manuals dealers
study (2) The framework can restrict the discrepancies
occurring in the repair process to perform the
right repair task efficiently
DEMATEL (Decision-Making Xia et al. (2015) Investigate the barriers in the (1) Integrate the grey approach with DEMATEL
Trial and Evaluative remanufacturing industry in China to overcome the peculiarity and bias of the
Laboratory)/observational case results to build causal relationships among
study the retrieved factors
(2) The lack of funding has been proved to be the
main factor influencing the implementation of
remanufacturing negatively
(3) The study does not discuss the impact of each
barrier on remanufacturing feasibility; rather,

it is based on personal opinions collected
from only three managers in this sector
Delphi method/case study Azevedo, Carvalho, and Present an Ecosilient Index for evaluating (1) A Delphi study is utilised for weighing the
Cruz-Machado the environmental side and flexibility of supply chain elements
(2013) automotive firms complying with supply (2) The proposed framework and the calculated
chain requirements index proved to be a useful and efficient tool
for decision-makers to control the supply
chain process in parallel with directing
attention towards the environmental impact
(3) The calculated Ecosilient Index is restricted
to the automotive industry, which limits its
applicability
Case study based on personal Blume and Walther Analyse the end-of-life ordinance of (1) End-of-life ordinance has a limited influence

interviews validated by a (2013) German vehicles on innovation
Delphi study (2) Legislation plays a negative role in fostering
the recycling decision
(3) The researcher did not investigate the relation
between actors from different professions or
departments
19
Table 5. Pilot studies in automotive PSS.

Author Sample size/response rate Objectives
Amrina and Yusof 16 Malaysian academics and Evaluate sustainable KPIs for
(2011) experts in the automotive measuring maintenance performance
industry (56%)
Sari, Shaharoun, 20 Malaysian automotive Measuring sustainable maintenance
Ma’aram, and companies (10.81%) performance
Yazid (2015)
Fuzi, Hibadullah, 27 Malaysian top management Investigate the critical success factors
Zamri, and Desa leaders in the Malaysian influencing the corporate social
(2015) automotive industry responsibilities in the Malaysian
automotive market
Note: KPIs, key performance indicators.
main features that tempt researchers to conduct surveys. On the other hand, the questionnaire
instrument suffers from certain drawbacks attributed to the quality of the collected data,
which is still doubtful because of the low response rate, respondents’ motivation, unclear
questions and the tendency for respondents to talk rather than write (Gillham, 2007).
In the PSS discipline, the survey tool is employed to examine the relations among vari-
ables that are constructed from the researchers’ study areas (e.g. customer satisfaction,
enterprise performance, quality and supply chain). Table 6 presents the survey-based
research in PSS.
The survey tool provides insights into the hidden relations among the variables
selected by researchers with the help of certain statistical tools that not only enable the
research to draw conclusions and develop theories, but also provide scientific validation
of the findings. However, the main drawback to conducting a survey is the noticeable
low response rate (Harwell, 2011), as shown in Table 7. To minimise the influence of
the low response rate, researchers tend to support their research with qualitative data or
employ data analysis techniques.
4.2.1.2. Observational studies. In observational studies, researchers tend to extract

hypotheses through observing data and applying mathematical tools (algorithms). Some
cases do not require such sophisticated mathematical methods; instead, they depend on
observational analysis and trend line extraction. Table 8 depicts the quantitative observa-
tional studies in automotive PSS.
Bearing in mind that quantitative observational studies seek to build theory from data
collected either by conducting a case study or by documentary observations, the first
option falls into the case study category, which lacks generalisability, while the other
one requires the collection of a huge amount of data and utilises mathematical tools to
help derive the findings.
4.2.2. Data analysis techniques

4.2.2.1. Algorithms. Mathematical algorithms are mostly used in automotive after-sales
service as they have the potential to extract useful theories when verbatim data are available.
Consequently, several models have been developed to tackle the forecasting feasibility of
vehicle components’ failure occurrence for the sake of optimising the warranty period, war-
ranty costs, product restyling and quality issues. Table 9 presents the warranty research.
Table 6. Survey-based research in PSS.

Environmental Supply chain risk Enterprise/operation Customer loyalty/ LM/ KPI/
Topic/author performance management performance satisfaction HR QMS Innovation revenue
Comoglio and Botta (2012) x
Thun and Hoenig (2011) x x
Ahmad and Butt (2012) x
Alejandro, Souza, Boles, x x
Ribeiro, and Monteiro
(2011)
Jabbour, Jabbour, Govindan, x x x
Teixeira, and Freitas
(2013)
Santos, Mendes, and Barbosa x

(2011)
Atalay, Sarvanc, and x x
Anafarta (2013)
Sánchez and Pérez (2005) x x
Voigt, Saatmann, and Schorr x x
(2008)
21
Table 7. Survey sample size and response rate.

Author Sample size/response rate
Comoglio and Botta (2012) 45 Italian automotive companies (66.2%)
Rosenbaum and Wong (2009) 1719 Vietnamese customers (57%)
Atalay et al. (2013) 113 Turkish automotive firms (47%)
Fynes, de Burca, and Mangan (2008) 200 Ireland automotive companies (38%)
Sánchez and Pérez (2005) 126 Spanish automotive suppliers (35.4%)
Thun and Hoenig (2011) 67 German automotive companies (32.8%)
Voigt et al. (2008) 803 German automotive buyers (27%)
Choi and Eboch (1998) 339 American companies (21%)
Alejandro et al. (2011) 66 Brazilian automotive companies (17.9%)
Santos et al. (2011) 46 Portuguese automotive companies (15.33%)
Jabbour et al. (2013) 75 Brazilian automotive companies (11.1%)
Wisner (2013) 350 American and European companies (10.2%)
Table 8. Automotive PSS quantitative observational studies.

Author Objective Data source
Aboltins and Rivza Investigate the automotive after-sales Observing the trend line of
(2014) market’s development and its product development in
interdependencies with new association with the after-sales
economy and technology market
Salleh, Kasolang, and Examine the adaptation of four models Case study in a Malaysian
Jaffar (2012) – TQM, LM, TPS and ISO/TSI automotive company
16949 – for the sake of enhancing
customer satisfaction with the help
of Delmia Quest software
Tichkiewitch and Riel Develop a new concept that associates Documentary observations
(2014) the quality process with risk
management by utilising the Six
Sigma tool
Hasan, Gao, Wasif, Develop a framework that associates Documentary observations
and Iqbal (2014) supply chain management with new
product development
Dombrowski and Present a new method to select feasible Documentary observations
Engel (2014) strategies for after sales to respond
to electric cars’ innovation
van der Vooren, Investigate the product portfolio Collected data from the Dutch
Alkemade, and strategy versus CO2 emissions, market from 2001 to 2010
Hekkert (2013) weights and car prices
Chan and Jiang (1999) Examine the utilisation of computer Case study in an automotive
simulation in the automotive manufacturer in Hong Kong
production line and its implication
for efficiency
The observational type of quantitative research in PSS is preferable in that the

researcher, with the help of a wide range of mathematical tools, can develop theories
from the available verbatim database in the after-sales department. However, these the-
ories suffer from individuality and non-applicability in other disciplines unless the
research is extended to undergo validation processes, which are not usually undertaken
due to research time and effort constraints. Nevertheless, the survey method proves to
Table 9. Warranty algorithms research.

Warranty Warranty Predict product Product Repair– replace Extended Maintenance
Author period costs failure restyling strategy warranty Quality policy
Korenok, Hoffer, and Millner x x x
(2009)
Buddhakulsomsiri and x
Zakarian (2009)
Iskandar and Murthy (2003) x
Chukova and Johnston (2006) x x
Rai and Singh (2005) x x x
Chien (2012) x x
Wu and Longhurst (2011) x x x
Yun, Murthy, and Jack (2008) x x x
Chang and Lin (2012) x x x

Bouguerra, Chelbi, and Rezg x x x
(2012)
Shaomin and Artur (2012) x
Kleyner and Sandborn (2008) x
Darghouth, Chelbi, and Ait- x x
kadi (2012)
23
be a flexible and reliable method to discover hidden knowledge and build models with
reasonable generalisability. However, it suffers from a low response rate and a time
delay in collecting information. The models developed using mathematical tools are
still limited to their data sources and the applicability of the findings is still restricted to
the theoretical provisions applied in the data analysis phase.
4.2.2.2. Other data analysis tools. In PSS quantitative research, certain data analysis
tools are mainly employed, with which the researcher can draw conclusions and
develop models. Table 10 summarises the most-used data analysis tools in PSS.
Overall, the data analysis techniques employed in the PSS discipline are diverse and
multipurpose. Structural equation modelling (SEM) and multivariate cluster analysis are
mainly used for examining relationships among variables that represent research con-
structs, while SEM develops equations by analysing multiple measurements simul-
taneously; cluster analysis forms a set of multivariate analysis tools of which the main
goal is to create groups of objects (respondents, products or other identities) that share
similar characteristics (Hair, Black, Babin, & Andersson, 2009). The main data collecting
instrument is the survey, with a considerably high number of respondents to validate the
analysis process. On other hand, fuzzy logic, Weibull distribution and Bayesian decision-
making are estimation tools based on probability theory, in which fuzzy logic deals with
cases involving uncertainty for grouping and decision-making purposes (Rouse, 2006).
With the help of fuzzyanalytical hierarchy process, researchers can prioritise decisions.
Weibull distribution is derived from probability theory and can be employed to forecast
failure occurrence and a product’s life span (Reliawiki, 2012), compared with Bayesian
decision-making, which calculates the probability in a more precise manner by combining
two kinds of probabilities: actual and estimated. However, it requires a high number of
respondents (Congdon, 2005) .Similarly, K-means and self-organising map (SOM) are
used for simplifying a huge volume of data by clustering and following an iterative
process (Kohonen, 2001). Consequently, the required large volume of numeric data
implies the use of either observational documentation or a case study as the data collection
instrument. Nevertheless, the Kano model is especially used to rank customer needs, while
quality function deployment (QFD) interprets these needs (Calgary, 2014), contrary to
Simons’s (2013) levers of control, which develop a business strategy perception
through scaling four main business constructs: belief, boundary, diagnostic and interactive
control systems. Finally, linear programming solves optimisation problems in which the
constraints and variables have a linear relation (Glover, 1986). A large volume of data
is the main requirement for employing the aforementioned tools; thus, observational docu-
mentation and the case study instrument are the main data collection tools, whilst the inap-
plicability of the models to a wide range of industries is still the main pitfall of this
discipline.
Moreover, compared with qualitative methods, quantitative studies are increasingly
attracting researchers due to their flexibility and variability of employing statistical
methods in the analysis phase as the deductive purpose is the dominant characteristic of
quantitative research, besides the simplicity of quantitative methods, which encompass
only two data collection methods – survey and documentary observation – in which stat-
istical tools provide an empirical description of the relations among variables even in cases
with uncertainty. However, the main drawbacks are still the certainty of information and
the ability to generalise the results to build hypotheses.
4.3. Mixed methodology

Recent educational research has been shifting from being almost dependent on quantitat-
ive methodologies to relying on more flexible designs that adopt qualitative methods as
well. Both methodologies adopt different approaches to maintaining high quality by assur-
ing the values of truth, conciseness and applicability. Thus, the mixed methodology has
been introduced for the sake of developing a flexible and rigorous research methodology.
Mixed-methods research associates qualitative and quantitative methods, which require
the collection of different types of data to provide insights and strengthen the paradigm
research, and the recent escalation of the adoption of mixed methods can be related to
the increase in research funds (Harwell, 2011).
4.3.1. Mixed-methods design

Four different designs can be detected in the literature: the sequential explanatory, sequen-
tial transformative, concurrent triangulation and concurrent nest designs. In the automo-
tive PSS discipline, the majority of research falls into either the sequential explanatory
or the sequential exploratory design. The first is used when the quantitative results are
unpredictable and the relationships among the variables are the focus point of the study;
hence, first the quantitative data are acquired and analysed, then the qualitative data are
collected. Conversely, in the second design, the quantitative data are used to support
and validate the qualitative data. These method types are normally utilised to increase
the generalisability despite the drawbacks of a long processing time and the availability
of data resources (Harwell, 2011). Table 11 summarises the mixed-methods studies in
PSS.
4.3.2. Techniques
4.3.2.1. Bayesian causal network. The causal network delineates a reasoning relation-
ship between events in a situation of uncertainty (Nielsen & Jensen, 2009). In the PSS
context, Ülengin, Önsel, Aktas, Kabak, & Özaydın (2013) employ Bayesian causal
network (BCN) to investigate the competitiveness of the automotive industry in relation
to national competitiveness; the study scrutinises the effects of the factors and their
relationships on competitiveness in the Turkish automotive industry. The survey question-
naire poses a (what) question to retrieve the competitiveness factors, whereas BCN is used
to answer the (how) question that describes the relationships among the factors. The find-
ings show that the local supplier quality factor has the highest influence on competitive-
ness, followed by taxation and bank facilitation, while innovation capacity, R&D and
the latest technology implementation show lower effects.
As a result, mixed methods are not very popular in the PSS discipline and this can be
attributed to two main reasons: the time required to collect information of both types,
quantitative and qualitative, is considerable and the data source is not available to be col-
lected and analysed all the time; furthermore, the data analysis phase requires solid knowl-
edge of statistics to avoid data incompatibility. Of the mixed-methods designs, only the
sequential exploratory and explanatory designs are adopted. The researchers using both
types try to validate their findings and give a high degree of credibility to the results,
and the methodology design is chosen according to the research objectives that pilot the
research performance. Finally, mixed methods generally investigate the relationship
among variables to provide deep insights into the study, which is in some cases supported
by data analysis techniques like BCN.
26
Table 10. Data analysis tools in PSS.
O. Sabbagh et al.
Data analysis tool Author Objective Data collection instrument
SEM Punniyamoorthy, Develop a model examining suppliers’ selection criteria Survey based with 151 respondents
Mathiyalagan, and Parthiban
(2011)
SEM Shin, Collier, and Wilson Examine the impact of the supply chain management Survey-based automotive
(2000) orientation on both the supplier’s operational performance manufacturers with 157
and the buyer’s decision-making priorities respondents
SEM Devaraj, Matta, and Conlon Investigate the impact of product and service quality on Survey based in an American
(2001) customer repurchase intentions automotive dealer supported with
dealer data records
SEM Jabbour et al. (2013) Present a conceptual framework to analyse the influence of Survey based in 75 Brazilian
EMS on OP and to validate the positive influence of LM automotive companies
and HR on environmental performance
SEM Ahmad and Butt (2012) Employ a confirmatory factor analysis to test the relation of Survey-based, 203 car owners of
automotive brand awareness, brand association, product TOYOTA, HONDA and
quality, brand loyalty and after-sales service from SUZUKI in Pakistan
customer perspective
SEM Fynes et al. (2008) Employ a confirmatory factor analysis to examine the Survey-based, 200 questionnaires,
influence of supply chain and product characteristics on top managers in Ireland.
organisational performance
SEM Choi and Eboch (1998) Test the mediation influence of plant performance on the Survey-based, 339 questionnaires,
direct impact of TQM practices on customer satisfaction plant managers in the USA
SEM Wisner (2013) Verify empirically the relation between suppliers, customers Survey-based, 350 questionnaires,
and supply chain management practices American and European plant
managers
SEM Rosenbaum and Wong (2009) Examine the integration between customer equity driers and Survey-based, 1719 car owners
service quality in Vietnamese automotive market
Interpretive structural Thakkar, Kanda, and Investigate the buyer –supplier relation Secondary data reports from Indian
modelling Deshmukh (2007) automotive SMEs
Multivariate cluster Santos et al. (2011) Analyse the pros and cons of integrating three main systems, Survey-based, 46 Portuguese
analysis QMS, EMS and the occupational health safety automotive companies
management system (OHSS), in Portuguese SMEs
Multivariate cluster Sánchez and Pérez (2005) Examine the relationship between supply chain flexibility Survey-based, 126 Spanish
analysis and company performance automotive companies
Multivariate cluster Atalay et al. (2013) Scrutinise the relation between innovation and the Survey-based, 113 Turkish
analysis company’s performance automotive companies
Multivariate cluster Park, Hartley, and Wilson Measure the quality management practices Survey-based, 121 tier-1 Korean
analysis (2001) automotive suppliers
Multiple regression Arokiasamy and Tat (2014) Examine the relation between service quality and customer Survey-based, 380 car owners in
analysis satisfaction in respect to product quality in automotive Malaysian market

business
Factor analysis and Moyano-Fuentes, Sacristán- Examine the correlation between LM and SC Survey-based in 84 automotive tier-
hierarchy regression Dı́az, and Martı́nez-Jurado 1 manufacturers in Spain
(2012)
Factor analysis Ali, Gafar, and Akbar (2013) Examine the feasibility of promotional strategies in attracting Survey-based, 120 questionnaires,
customers Malaysian car owners
Fuzzy logic, MCDM Zhou, Huang, Zhu, and Deng Group the used spare parts in terms of their validity for being Observational documentary +
(multi-criteria (2012) reused or not validation in an automotive
decision-making) company
Fuzzy logic Chougule, Khare, and Pattada Evaluate the customer satisfaction based on quality and Observational documentary
(2013) reliability
Fuzzy linear Jung and Jeong (2012) Investigate the fluctuating demand in supply chain planning Case study in Korean automotive
programming company
Weibull distribution Kleyner and Sandborn (2005) Warranty cost forecasting Case study
Weibull distribution Aksezer (2011) Develop a model analysing the failure rate by relying on Observational documentary

three main parameters: age, usage and maintenance record
Weibull distribution Attardi, Guida, and Pulcini Forecast the defect occurrence of automotive components to Two case studies
(2005) extract the lifetime of the investigated items
Bayesian decision Fang and Huang (2008) Evaluate the deterioration of parts in the case of insufficient Observational documentary
data and depending on experts’ opinion
Bayesian decision Fang and Huang (2010) Develop a model envisaging failure occurrence Observational documentary
Bayesian procedure Guida, Pulcini, and Vianello Propose a procedure that formalises the prior data about the Case study
(2009) failure expectation of reused spare parts
K-mean and SOM Liang (2010) Analyse the customer satisfaction value, which is classified Observational documentary
into high, middle and low groups
Kano model and QFD Yadav and Goel (2008) Observational documentary
27
(Continued)
28
O. Sabbagh et al.
Table 10. Continued.

Data analysis tool Author Objective Data collection instrument
Develop a framework that correlates quality improvements
with customer satisfaction
QFS Yüksel (2010) Develop an application that prioritises the specification of the Survey-based
automobile engines
QDF and DMAIC Shanmugaraja, Nataraj, and Develop a customer care management model for an Survey-based
approach Gunasekaran (2010) automotive service company
Linear programming Farel, Yannou, and Bertoluci Present a model integrating costs and benefits for the scheme Case study of a French automotive
(2013) of ELV company
Simons’s levers of Iwaarden, van der Wiele, Investigate the impact of new product-wide variability and a Case study
control Williams, and Dale (2006) short life cycle on the quality management system
Note: EMS, environment management system; OP, operational performance; LM, lean management; HR, human resource; SOM, Self-organising map; DMAIC, define, measure,
analyse, improve and control.
5. Discussion
The automotive industry has proven to be the most blooming industry in the world, in
which automotive companies claim global market competencies and regional pro-
duction characterisation (Rugman & Collison, 2004); consequently, the product –
service sector is experiencing noticeable development to maintain sustainable relation-
ships with buyers and guarantee the perpetual selling process. It is evident that the
automotive industry has a changeable impact on both technological and sociable
aspects, and this change can be measured over a time period (Wells & Nieuwenhuis,
2012). This article provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of the
approaches tackling the automotive product – service domain; it investigates the three
types of applied methodologies – qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods – and
presents the state of the art of published papers in the ISI, Scopus and Procedia cat-
egories. The authors follow a systematic review methodology in categorising the
papers according to the methodologies employed and provide a critical analysis of
each method with a focus on the most-used analysis tools in these approaches. Basi-
cally, three different research methodologies are reported in the literature: qualitative,
quantitative and mixed methodologies.
In qualitative studies, the basic qualitative and grounded theory research types are the
most used, and the case study method is the main instrument for collecting data for the first
type. Nevertheless, the historical type of case study is not preferred due to the scientific
and industrial core of the data used in the PSS domain, contrary to the observational
case study type, which is more common due to its flexibility in adopting a number of
data analysis techniques used in qualitative research, for example, text mining and
DEMATEL, which are powerful tools to tokenise non-metric data, in association with
the Delphi method, which is also utilised for confirming the credibility of data. Moreover,
the intrinsic and instrumental types are well used, with a noticeable bias towards the instru-
mental type due to its ability to develop a theory and achieve results that are completely
impartial regarding the researcher’s preconceptions. The main limitation of qualitative
studies is the lack of generalisability, causing several researchers to strengthen their
results by conducting surveys or adopting the multiple case study type. The latter rep-
resents a rigorous solution to the generalisability problem; however, it requires more
time and causes more complications in the data analysis phase.
On the other hand, quantitative methods demonstrate greater flexibility in dealing with
the automotive product–service paradigm; this can be attributed to the genre of the collected
data, which are numeric in the majority. The survey tool is the most used data collection
instrument; meanwhile, the observational documentary method is also utilised in some
approaches, especially for investigating after-sales warranty services, for which researchers
tend to apply different types of algorithms to examine the relations among specific variables.
Both tools, survey and observational documentary, could resolve the generalisability limit-
ation with the help of certain statistical tools that provide scientific validation of the research
results; however, the low response rate, respondent misperception and long response time
are the main common drawbacks to conducting surveys, compared with observational
studies that require a huge volume of data as well as solid knowledge in statistics and math-
ematics. The quantitative data analysis tools are wide and versatile, so choosing one specific
tool relies on the data criteria and research objectives; however, the authors can categorise
the analysis tools according to their functionality, as shown in Table 12.
On this line, mixed methods offer the compromise of an acceptable methodology that
solves both qualitative and quantitative limitations. Sequential explanatory and
Table 11. Mixed-methods designs in PSS.

Mixed-
methods
Author Objective design Methodology details
Thun and Müller Investigate the green supply Exploratory Explorative case study
(2010) chain status in German design followed with
automotive companies questionnaire to validate
the research results.
Östlin, Sundin, and Design a plan to fulfil the Sequential Exploratory case study
Björkman (2009) equilibrium status explanatory linked with empirical
between the recycled design data
products’ market demand
and the volume of
returned products
Gaiardelli, Saccani, Develop a framework to Sequential Observational case study +
and Songini analyse the performance exploratory questionnaire +
(2007) measurement system and design observational

supply chain network of documentary
two automotive
companies
Subramoniam, Build a strategy for the Sequential Data derived from a
Huisingh, and automotive aftermarket exploratory literature review and case
Chinnam (2010) remanufacturing industry design study, and a survey is
conducted to confirm the
validity of the proposed
strategic factors
Ülengin et al. Investigate the Sequential Survey questionnaire
(2013) competitiveness of the exploratory addressing (which)
automotive industry in design questions to retrieve the
relation to national competitiveness factors,
competitiveness whereas BCN is used to
answer the (how)
question that describes
the relationships among
the factors
Amelia, CheHaron, Remanufacturing industry Sequential A single intrinsic embedded
Muhamad, and feasibility in Malaysia exploratory case study by three
Azhari (2009) design automotive companies
followed by a
questionnaire to collect
respondent opinions
about the advantages and
disadvantages of the
reuse industry with the
help of a SWOT analysis
to prioritise pertinent
points
MacBryde, Saccani, The influence of after-sales Sequential Multiple exploratory case
Songini, and performance in the exploratory studies Two case studies
Gaiardelli (2006) manufacturing domain design followed by a detailed
questionnaire
Note: SWOT, strength, weakness, opportunities and threats.
Table 12. Quantitative data analysis tools vs. research objectives and data collecting instruments.
Data collecting
Research objective Data analysis tool instrument
Scrutinising relationships SEM Survey
between variables
Decisive tool in uncertainty Fuzzy logic, Weibull distribution Observational
cases and Bayesian decision-making documentary, case
study
Data clustering Multivariate cluster analysis, Survey, observational
K-means documentary
Customer satisfaction Kano model and QFD Observational
assessment documentary
Develop a model having a linear Linear programming Case study
function with constructs
Business strategy Simons’s levers of control Case study
exploratory designs are adopted more than other types of mixed methods, with a noticeable
bias towards the use of the exploratory type, which provides empirical evidence to the
qualitative part of the research and accordingly grants rigour and meets the requirements
for reliable research. Nevertheless, BCNs are mostly used in the mixed-methods design as
they deal with uncertainty conditions. The quantitative part answers the ‘what’ question,
whereas BCN answers the ‘how’ question by investigating the causal relation among the
variables. Generally, mixed methods are still not particularly tempting due to their com-
plexity in the data-matching phase and the time consumption issue, which directly
affect the research’s financial aspect; however, in the PSS discipline, the data compatibil-
ity problem is avoided by adopting sequential exploratory or explanatory types, but the
researcher needs solid information about qualitative and quantitative methods rather
than being grounded in statistical tools and qualitative analysis instruments.
6. Conclusion
This review makes an immense contribution to researchers and practitioners who are inter-
ested in conducting research in the automotive PSS context, in that it forms a guideline for
choosing the proper research methodology. Nevertheless, the authors seek to deepen the
understanding of academic research methodologies to provide a potential contribution
in their future research.
Through this review, it is evident that the number of published articles investi-
gating the general PSS terminology is growing in academic journals, bearing in
mind that the automotive PSS domain is still an ambiguous area to investigate;
however, the research methodology concepts are still fixed with noticeable emphasis
on the empirical aspect of the studied phenomenon. Mixed methods, despite their
aforementioned pitfalls, represent the most recommended research methodology to
develop hypotheses with deep information and wide generalisability in the case that
the researcher has solid knowledge of both quantitative and qualitative methods and
can maintain the time criterion.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
We would like to express our deepest appreciation to the Ministry of Education (Malaysian Inter-
national Scholarship MIS) for sponsoring the research under university grant [GUP-2014-020].
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Methodology implications in automotive product– service systems: a

# 2016 Taylor & Francis

Figure 1. The percentage of selected articles from electronic database.

Step1: Identify the publications and apply the screening ontology

Step 2: Apply the screening constraints

Step 3: Final filtration and reference analysis

Figure 2. Framework of selection criteria.

Figure 3. Articles’ distribution over the time frame.

Table 1. Research methods’ distribution over the time frame.

Figure 4. Articles’ distribution on journals.

Figure 5. Content classification framework.

Figure 6. Research methods’ percentage.

4.1.1. Case study

4.1.2. Grounded theory

4.1.3. Data analysis technique

manufacturers and hybrid technology in

Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management

Thoben (2014) model in the production context level

Total Quality Management

Table 3. Grounded theory cases in PSS.

4.2. Quantitative methodology

4.2.1. Quantitative methods

rectification actions with failure symptoms,

barrier on remanufacturing feasibility; rather,

Total Quality Management

Table 5. Pilot studies in automotive PSS.

4.2.1.2. Observational studies. In observational studies, researchers tend to extract

4.2.2. Data analysis techniques

Table 6. Survey-based research in PSS.

Total Quality Management

Table 7. Survey sample size and response rate.

Table 8. Automotive PSS quantitative observational studies.

The observational type of quantitative research in PSS is preferable in that the

Table 9. Warranty algorithms research.

Total Quality Management

4.3. Mixed methodology

4.3.1. Mixed-methods design

analysis satisfaction in respect to product quality in automotive Malaysian market

Total Quality Management

Table 10. Continued.

Table 11. Mixed-methods designs in PSS.

(2007) measurement system and design observational

value and performance. Industrial Marketing Management, 40 (1), 36–43.

Rouse, M. (2006). Fuzzy logic. Retrieved October 11, 2015, http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/

performance. Journal of Business Logistics, 24 (1), 1 –26.

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