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The electrification of vehicles has become a critical means to achieve climate-neutral transportation. As more electric vehicles (EV) are adopted, an increasing number of lithiumion batteries will be utilized, inevitably experiencing capacity degradation over time. Retaining the value of these retired batteries through remanufacturing, reusing, and repurposing to create a second life holds significant environmental and economic benefits. However, many companies within the battery ecosystem struggle to capitalize on this opportunity due to a lack of business insight and suitable business models tailored to their operational contexts.

The ReCreate (Second Life Management of Electric Vehicle Batteries) research project was initiated to address these industrial needs through close collaboration with selected companies in the battery ecosystem. The project aims to define appropriate circular business models, methods, and processes to guide battery ecosystem actors in developing and implementing electric vehicle battery second life solutions, thereby advancing circularity around batteries and climate-neutral objectives. 

This handbook represents the culmination of three years of research within the ReCreate project. Its purpose is to present a simplified and practical overview of project outcomes across a series of key chapters. Comprising six chapters, the handbook will begin by discussing barriers and enablers, followed by circular business models and battery ecosystem management. It will then delve into design principles and performance monitoring guidelines, concluding with an integrated framework for second life and circular solutions for EV batteries. 

Each chapter briefly presents the main findings of the theme and concludes with discussion questions. The discussion questions include suggestions for relevant templates for workshops, and all templates are conveniently provided in the appendix for practical application. These templates serve as boundary objects, offering a starting point for internal and external cross-functional and cross-organizational dialogues within the electric vehicle battery ecosystem. They facilitate discussions and collaborations among various stakeholders, fostering alignment and synergy in developing circular business models for the second life of EV batteries.  

By facilitating reflection on current business strategies, needs, and pain points, the handbook aims to aid in the definition of future second life business strategies. We anticipate that this handbook will serve as a valuable resource for actors within the EV battery ecosystem, supporting their journey towards climate-neutral transportation. 

The manufacturing industry is essential in the transition towards a Circular Economy and a more sustainable society. One way manufacturing companies can become more sustainable and contribute to a resource-efficient society is by offering Product-Service Systems (PSS). PSS means integrating products and services through different types of business models, such as product pooling, leasing, sharing, and other product-related services. Designing PSS is both about the tangible product offering and the design of the complete system around the product. Therefore, it is required for manufacturing companies to have a systems approach when designing PSS. The majority of studies in the PSS field have been conducted from a large-company perspective, and it has been limited focus considering the context and characteristics of SMEs. This thesis aims to contribute to the PSS and servitisation literature by addressing the research gap and lack of insights in studies related to PSS design in a manufacturing SME context.

This research is based on a systematic literature review and empirical data from three contract manufacturing SMEs. The findings show that SMEs face both internal and external challenges when designing PSS. The challenges identified are related to several parts of the organisation and are also interconnected and overlapping. Besides, SMEs' characteristics also influence these challenges, showing the importance of the context when discussing challenges in designing PSS in SMEs. The study shows that characteristics such as lack of financial resources influence more than one challenge, making it difficult for SMEs to know which challenges to prioritise when designing PSS. Also, as the studied SMEs are contract manufacturers to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), they need acceptance and support from their OEM customers, but they may not gain customer acceptance. The study indicates that SMEs need to decide if they should design PSS with their customers or find a business opportunity and design PSS independently, despite lacking vital resources needed for PSS design.

Keywords: Product-Service Systems, Small and medium-sized enterprises, Servitization, challenges, SME characteristics, manufacturing companies, circular economy

Manufacturing companies can contribute to a resource-efficient society by designing product-service systems (PSS). Despite the increased importance of PSS for the manufacturing industry in their efforts to become sustainable, few studies focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study presented in this article aims to add knowledge on how the characteristics of SMEs influence the challenges SMEs experience when designing PSS. It employs a multiple case study design where data are based on interviews, workshops, and internal archive documents from three contract manufacturing SMEs. The analysis suggests that nine SME characteristics influence the challenges SMEs experience when designing PSS. It also shows that SMEs’ different characteristics influence one or more challenges, and that SMEs have a short-term horizon and a reactive business approach which influences the overall challenge of designing PSS. 

Purpose – Despite increasing focus among scholars and practitioners on the design of product-services systems (PSS), there exists no compilation of current knowledge on the role played by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in designing such systems. Thus, this paper sets out to identify and organise the existing research and suggest questions for future research.

Design/methodology/approach—A systematic literature review was performed to identify and provide in-depth details on key themes in the literature addressing the design of PSS in SMEs.

Findings – This paper identifies five themes in the literature on the design of PSS in SMEs: motives, challenges, SME characteristics, methods and digitalisation. The themes are interrelated, and SME characteristics seem to beat the core as they are related to all the other themes. Gaps in the current knowledge are identified, and questions for future research are suggested.

Originality/value – The suggestions for future research provide a starting point for expanding the research on PSS design and devising practical support for SMEs.