As the technological gap amongst manufacturers decreases, the life cycle of products has shortened, and competition accelerates due to the development of technology, incumbent manufacturing companies face growth limitations. In order to overcome such business issues, manufacturing companies are increasingly interested in changes in business models and innovations, especially in the direction of providing services where they can maintain the competitive advantage of their products. In such context, this empirical study examines managerial leadership, differentiation strategies, and products and services pricing as ‘servitization factors’, which can be driving forces for moving into a new era of growth for Korean SMEs, focusing on the mediating effects of servitization competency. The results are as follows : First, it was confirmed that executive leadership, differentiation strategy, and information & communication technology capability have a direct effect on service sales. Second, the process competency, partnership competency, and ICT competency, which are presented as the service competence of SMEs, were found to play an important role in inducing service sales in managerial leadership, differentiation strategy, product and services pricing. It also emphasized the role of the public policy such as helping to foster SMEs as key partners in the expansion of social facilities and establishing platforms through ICT and data utilization for the convergence of manufacturing services.

As the technological gap amongst manufacturers decreases, the life cycle of products has shortened, and competition accelerates due to the development of technology, incumbent manufacturing companies face growth limitations. In order to overcome such business issues, manufacturing companies are increasingly interested in changes in business models and innovations, especially in the direction of providing services where they can maintain the competitive advantage of their products. In such context, this empirical study examines managerial leadership, differentiation strategies, and products and services pricing as 'servitization factors', which can be driving forces for moving into a new era of growth for Korean SMEs, focusing on the mediating effects of servitization competency. The results are as follows: First, it was confirmed that executive leadership, differentiation strategy, and information & communication technology capability have a direct effect on service sales. Second, the process competency, partnership competency, and ICT competency, which are presented as the service competence of SMEs, were found to play an important role in inducing service sales in managerial leadership, differentiation strategy, product and services pricing. It also emphasized the role of the public policy such as helping to foster SMEs as key partners in the expansion of social facilities and establishing platforms through ICT and data utilization for the convergence of manufacturing services.