Description
In this episode, we explore territorial servitization, a powerful concept that shifts the focus from individual firms to regions as engines of innovation and value creation. Rather than seeing servitization as a company-level strategy, territorial servitization shows how manufacturing firms and knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) co-evolve within a territory—jointly driving productivity, innovation, employment, and long-term regional resilience.
Using the wind-to-energy industry as a central case, the episode traces how leading European regions transformed wind turbine manufacturing into globally competitive renewable energy ecosystems. We examine how local service capabilities—R&D, engineering, digital monitoring, operations, and maintenance—became just as critical as physical production, enabling regions to scale globally, survive industry consolidation, and leap into new technologies such as offshore wind.
The discussion highlights why proximity, collaboration, and “value-adding fit” between manufacturers and service providers matter—and how territorial servitization offers fresh insights for regional development policy, industrial strategy, and sustainable transitions. Ultimately, this episode shows how regions can move beyond a factory-centric model toward hybrid value chains where services and manufacturing reinforce each other over decades.
Key words
Territorial Servitization, Regional Innovation Ecosystems, Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS), Wind-to-Energy Industry, Hybrid Value Chains
