Challenges in co-creating solution value during utilization phase: Insights from three failed projects

The utilization phase is critical for overall solution value creation, but solution providers and customers alike struggle to manage this phase effectively. We employed the resource interaction approach (RIA) in a case study of a Swedish clean-tech company with three failed solution projects. We identified three challenges associated with co-creating solution value during utilization: (1) new interfaces between the solution outputs and the customer’s other relevant resources become manifest during use; (2) the standardized parts of the solution are created in specific contexts and hence may not perform as expected if the customer’s use context is considerably different; and (3) gradual changes in the solution outputs and the customer’s other relevant resources are difficult to detect and assess. We develop three propositions based on these findings. This study contributes to the solutions literature as one of the first empirical studies to investigate challenges in solution utilization from an RIA perspective.