The after-sales service in the Italian textile machinery industry: results from an empirical analysis

摘要

Over the last years, in the capital goods sectors the importance of the after-sales services has increased: being able to provide them in an efficient and efficacy way can become a source of competitive advantage. In this paper the results of an empirical analysis carried out in a sample of Italian textile machinery manufacturers are described. The objective of the investigation is the identification of the main features of the after-sales management in this industry with particular reference to three issues: the mix of offered services, the configuration of the after-sales provision net and the performance measurement. A possible generalization of the collected data has been proposed by introducing two matrix that aims to summarize the results of the empirical observations.