Customer capabilities for solution offerings in business markets

Solutions in business markets aim to solve business customers' organizational problems by providing end-to-end offerings consisting of customized combinations of goods and services along the customers' business processes. While the effective integration of customer resources and processes is key for solution success, prior research predominantly focusses in delineating only those capabilities that provider firms necessitate to offer solutions. Yet, it remains unclear which capabilities customer firms require to develop, deploy, and use solutions effectively and how these capabilities differ across different solution types. This study addresses these gaps by combining a critical literature review on organizational capabilities of business customers with empirical insights gained in 20 in-depth interviews with representatives of provider firms across a wide range of industries. Using the repertory grid method, this study identifies five broader capability sets consisting of 16 organizational customer-firm capabilities and demonstrates their importance for different types of solution offerings. Theoretically, this study advances research on solution capabilities by explicating the nature, composition, and relevance of a portfolio of capabilities that customer firms require to bring into the solution process. Managerially, the results can assist solution providers in evaluating, choosing, and developing their customer base during the solution development and deployment process.