Organizational culture,innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's model

Innovation is the key to organizational survival and therefore the study of processes that support innovation should be of interest to researchers and practitioners alike. Schein's multi-layered model of organizational culture offers a useful framework for thinking about processes that foster innovation. A defining characteristic of the model is the subtle but important distinctions between the varied “layers” of organizational culture (i.e., values and norms, artifacts and behaviors). The basic assumption of this study is that Schein's model offers a tractable explanation of cultural processes that support organizational innovation, especially in service firms. Despite the intuitive appeal and practical value of Schein's conceptual framework, empirical research in relation to the model is limited. This paper develops a rationale for an empirical model based on Schein's conceptual model; the study reports a test of an empirical model. Data collected from approximately 100 principals of law firms provides a suitable empirical context for a test of the model. The findings generally support the hypothesized relationships. A key result is how layers of organizational culture, particularly norms, artifacts, and innovative behaviors, partially mediate the effects of values that support innovation on measures of firm performance. The findings have implications for theory and practice, especially in relation to building an organizational culture within professional service firms that fosters innovative behavior.     

The study of service innovation for digiservice on loyalty

Advocates of management of service innovation see this area as a new and promising research field. As services are increasingly becoming driving forces of economies, the introduction of new services to satisfy customer needs is becoming a critical issue for managers. This research attempts to address the consumer issue of service innovation. The research entails a comprehensive study of the impacts of service innovation on consumer loyalty in the digiservice context. The study examines service innovation loyalty from the consumer perspective; namely, technology leadership, service leadership, switching cost, brand equity, and customization. Personal interview data from 475 consumers provides the data for empirical hypothesis testing of the relationships between variables. The conceptual model investigates the relevant relationships among the constructs by using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings from the research sample support the argument that technology leadership, service leadership, brand equity, and customization are the key determinants of loyalty. The paper also includes a discussion on the theoretical and managerial implications of the research findings.     

Process of customer interaction during new service development in an emerging country

Globalization has a major impact on the practice of innovation across a wide range of service industries. Yet, only limited attention has been paid to the issue of service innovation in a global context. To address this critique of the literature, a case study of new service development and customer interaction was conducted in a multinational financial services firm based in the USA. The case study investigates the development of new services with inputs from company's customers in India. It also traces the roles of local Indian subsidiary and local managers in developing and managing the overall service innovation process.     

New Service Development Process

Abstract

To continue to grow, more and more U.S. service firms have looked overseas in recent years to find markets for their offerings. Thus, innovation in the global context has become a strategic imperative for many service firms. While the issue of how to foster service innovation has been an area of extensive research, the cross-national comparison of innovation practices particularly between developed and emerging countries has been only a nascent field of research. To address this gap in the literature we conducted a comparative study of new service development process and stages of the financial service firms in an emerging country, India, and a developed country, the United States. The results support the central argument of the article that significant cross-national differences do exist with regard to a firm's new service development process. The findings should be of value to managers faced with the tasks of selecting and managing service innovation in emerging markets, as well as those firms experiencing international competition.     

How to encourage social innovations: a resource-based approach

During the last decade, social innovation has emerged as an outstanding topic for scholars, businesses, and public institutions. This growing interest is due to its potential positive effects on well-being and sustainable development. This study analyzes social innovation under the umbrella of the transformative service research framework. Adopting a resource-based perspective, the research attempts to determine whether the deployment in service organizations of two types of factors that support dynamic capabilities, i.e. internal market orientation, and information and communication technology competence, impacts the extent to which these organizations develop different kinds of product, process, marketing, and organizational social innovations. The study also assesses the impact of these innovation activities on the organization's transformational performance in terms of increased access to new targets. Empirical research is based on a two-step survey to a sample of Spanish nonprofits (particularly, a representative sample of foundations), since the nonprofit sector provides services that possess inherent transformational characteristics. Results confirm the expected positive effects of these two factors on social innovation and performance, and provide several guidelines for implementing social innovations in service industries.     

Facility design consequences of different employees’ quality perceptions

An important challenge for facility management is to integrate the complex and comprehensive construct of different service processes and physical elements of the service facility into a meaningful and functional facility design. The difficulty of this task is clearly indicated by the present study that shows that different employee categories for interpersonal services have quite different perceptions of the facility design that stem from different but coherent needs and interests. Employees with management perspectives (i.e. top managers and facility managers) were significantly more positive about the facility design than frontline employees and their supervisors with providers’ perspectives. Also, providers attributed a more important role to facility design with respect to delivering interpersonal services than management did. We found strong indications for the need for cross-functional cooperation in decision making about the facility design, creating a more balanced setting and possibly empowering providers for the service encounter.     

Service innovation as a political process

Service innovation processes are driven by stakeholders in interaction and are understood and sketched as a value negotiation process that consists of an iterative process of securing potential value in service. While previous research has focused on service innovation as a harmonious closed system, our study explores service innovation as a political process in which stakeholders negotiate to create and secure future value. Data are collected through interviews and participant observations in four different case studies. Our study contributes to the field by illuminating service innovation as a political process and explaining how this is operationalized. The findings also contribute to an understanding of how stakeholder resources impact a chosen strategy; the resulting strategy’s impact on the service concept vis-à-vis its potential value; and how several involved stakeholders formulate, negotiate, and secure future potential value, which are the activities that drive a service innovation process.     

Business incubation: innovative services in an entrepreneurship ecosystem

This article studies the process of business services provision by business incubators. It considers this provision as an innovative and dynamic process, carried out in an open innovation context, where many elements from the entrepreneurship ecosystem (EE) interact. Thus, the article creates new knowledge because conceptually, it defines and relates all the key elements that are the source of innovation and value added: business services themselves, the EE, the context of open innovation and the features of that interaction. This conceptualization is tested empirically in two different scopes, a broad one with 255 business incubators around the world, and a Spanish case with two university incubators with some references to a foreign two-country study. Results detect some patterns of service provision according to ownership, size and partnership of the business incubators and show the efficacy of the cooperation of the private and public sectors and the universities.     

On innovation patterns and value-tensions in public services

In the innovation studies literature, innovation patterns have been described, such as science-based and practice-based innovation, that vary among industrial sectors. As a consequence, firms become distinguished with respect to their typical innovation pattern. Less attention has been paid to the possibility of intertwined innovation patterns. Focusing on public sector services, this paper argues that intertwined innovation patterns emerge within public services as a response to value-tensions. Values can be defined as measures for beneficial behaviour that guide innovation. Value-tensions in public services include tensions between the political, economic, communal, aesthetic and intellectual values. The contribution of the paper to service innovation research is the emphasis on the concept of intertwined innovation patterns, such as the intertwinement of science-driven and task-driven innovation. Furthermore, the paper contributes by pinpointing how varied values guide innovation in public services.     

A comparative study of innovation behaviour in Singapore's KIBS and manufacturing firms

While most services innovation studies are concentrated on the OECD or EU countries, research on services innovation in the non-OECD context is still rare. This study investigates innovation behaviour of a certain group of services – knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), compared with the manufacturing sector in Singapore. The main findings of this study are: (1) KIBS firms have higher innovating ratio than manufacturing firms, but innovating manufacturing firms are more likely to do R&D than innovating KIBS firms; (2) KIBS firms have higher human capital intensity, training spending intensity, innovation spending intensity, and R&D spending intensity than manufacturing firms; (3) KIBS firms and manufacturing firms have similar innovation objectives, although some delicate nuances do exist; (4) KIBS firms are less likely to have overseas partners for innovation collaboration than manufacturing firms; (5) there is a U pattern of innovation collaboration with geographic distance for both KIBS and manufacturing firms; (6) social capitals are important for KIBS firms' successful provision of innovation support to manufacturing clients; (7) the importance of spatial proximity varies over different phases of innovation support.     

Inter-organizational information systems adoption for service innovation in building sector

The building sector has experienced a significant decline in recent years in Spain and Europe as a result of the financial crisis that began in 2007. This drop accompanies a low penetration of information and communication technologies in inter-organizational oriented business processes. The market decrease is causing a slowdown in the building sector, where only flexible small and medium enterprises (SMEs) survive thanks to specialization and innovation in services, which allow them to face new market demands. Inter-organizational information systems (IOISs) support innovation in services, and are thus a strategic tool for SMEs to obtain competitive advantage. Because of the inherent complexity of IOIS adoption, this research extends Kurnia and Johnston's (2000) theoretical model of IOIS adoption with an empirical model of IOIS characterization. The resultant model identifies the factors influencing IOIS adoption in SMEs in the building sector, to promote further service innovation for competitive and collaborative advantages. An empirical longitudinal study over six consecutive years using data from Spanish SMEs in the building sector validates the model, using the partial least squares technique and analyzing temporal stability. The main findings of this research are the four ways an IOIS might contribute to service innovation in the building sector. Namely: a) improving client interfaces and the link between service providers and end users; b) defining a specific market where SMEs can develop new service concepts; c) enhancing the service delivery system in traditional customer–supplier relationships; and d) introducing information and communication technologies and tools to improve information management.     

Establishing a system for innovation in a professional services firm

Professional service firms are facing new competitive challenges in a global market with more value-focused clients, service commoditization, regulatory changes, and new Internet-enabled business models. They increasingly need to improve competitiveness through sustained innovation of the value they provide and the efficiency with which they provide it. But how can firms establish an effective and sustainable innovation system? This Executive Digest shares a best practice model for innovation based on academic research and honed by a decade of practical experience in application across professional service firms in consulting projects. This work covers how to develop innovation strategies by establishing processes and organization to support innovation, providing innovation training, developing new services, and re-engineering existing services. The author, Alastair Ross, details the practices required and shares some of the challenges encountered in realizing them. This article draws heavily on his latest book, Innovating professional services: Transforming value and efficiency.     

Employee involvement in ideation and healthcare service innovation quality

ABSTRACT

This study hypothesizes and empirically tests the influence of involvement of (1) frontline employees and (2) top managers in ideation process on healthcare service innovation quality. Based on data from 168 service innovation projects in Dutch healthcare organizations, the empirical results indicate that frontline employee involvement and top management involvement in, respectively, idea generation and idea application both improve the quality of healthcare service innovation. We find that the positive effect of frontline employee involvement is stronger under the condition of higher service innovativeness. In the direct relationship of top management involvement and healthcare service innovation quality, our data do not show such a moderating effect. The key and general managerial implication of the findings is that healthcare organizations are inspired to involve frontline employees in the idea generation processes and involve top managers in the idea application processes of service innovation projects, in order to improve innovation quality.     

Prior Knowledge and New Product and Service Introductions by Entrepreneurial Firms: The Mediating Role of Technological Innovation

Most research on new product and service development by entrepreneurial firms takes an individual‐level, prelaunch perspective or firm‐level postlaunch perspective. Our study examines two components of the new product and service introduction process: how entrepreneurs' prior knowledge underpins (1) firm technological innovation prior to the introduction of new products and services (prelaunch) and (2) postlaunch viability of those new products and services. Our findings, based on a series of analyses of data from 158 entrepreneurial firms, show that formal technological innovation fully mediates the relation between prior knowledge and the introduction of viable new products and services.     

Service innovation: Inward and outward related activities and cooperation mode

Knowledge of how customers co-create value, the way that suppliers and providers co-produce services, and how research and development centers and universities transfer technologies is becoming increasingly important to scholars' understanding of service innovation. This paper presents an analysis of the relationship between inward and outward innovation activities in service organizations and their modes of innovation, using network innovation premises and an extended innovation model. Empirical data from retail, health and education sector service organizations show the existence of a relationship between the degree of development of the inward innovation process and the degree of development of outward innovation activities. The majority of service organizations have innovation processes with an orientation toward customers and suppliers rather than other service network members, and leading service organizations follow a path that the literature defines as oriented toward the service value network. Findings lead to implications of how innovation managers could develop their internal innovation capacity to balance inward and outward activities properly.     

Management of Innovation in Services

The article discusses two issues. The first is whether service firms innovate at all; the second is how they organise the innovation activities. The basis for the analysis is a series of case studies in Danish service firms. The first issue is discussed theoretically. Of the several paradigms within traditional innovation theory, the strategic innovation paradigm is the most adequate to explain service innovations. Organisational learning must be separated from innovation whereby the latter means a jump in turnover and profit while the first means a lower and continuous growth. The emphirical analysis demonstrates that the service firms innovate. The second issue is analysed empirically. Different ways of organising the innovation activities are set placed a taxonomy. It is concluded that the service firms rarely have R&D departments and innovation generally is an unsystematic search-and-learn process.     

A bricolage perspective on service innovation

Service innovation is often viewed as a process of accessing the necessary resources, (re)combining them, and converting them into new services. The current knowledge on success factors for service innovation, such as formalized new service development (NSD) processes, predominantly comes from studying large firms with a relatively stable resource base. However, this neglect situations in which organizations face severe resource constraints. This paper argues that under such constraints, a formalized new service development process could be counter-productive and a bricolage perspective might better explain service innovation in resource-constrained environments. In this conceptual paper, we propose that four critical bricolage capabilities (addressing resource scarcity actively, making do with what is available, improvising when recombining resources, and networking with external partners) influence service innovation outcomes. Empirical illustrations from five organizations substantiate our conceptual development. Our discussion leads to a framework and four testable propositions that can guide further service research.     

To Technovate or Not to Technovate? Examining the Inter-Relationship of Consumer Technology,Museum Service Quality,Museum Value,and Repurchase Intent

Increased reliance on technology has driven museums to consider the technology required to provide a creative cost effective experience. Technovation is a process of developing and innovating services using technology. This research will contribute to a better technology investment decision-making for museum managers and advance understanding of consumer value, co-creation, technology use and museums. Structural equation modelling was conducted on a survey administered to 412 museum visitors to test technology efficacy, technology acceptance, service quality, museum value and repeat intent in museums. Results indicate the significant relationships of technology self-efficacy, technology acceptance, service quality, museum value to repurchase intention. Consumers supported the role of technology and suggested that technology innovation in museum service delivery is essential. The research suggests that to ensure value co-creation, technology management must guide and support the visitor with the interaction. This is the first known paper testing this system of relationships in the museum context.     

Novelty-focussed document mapping to identify new service opportunities

Successful innovation in services is considered a key factor for organisational sustainability. However, existing customer- and expert-centric approaches are becoming time-consuming and labour-intensive as the number and complexity of services increase. To counter this, an instrument for service opportunity analysis based on quantitative data and systematic processes is proposed in line with the notions of service engineering. At the heart of the suggested approach is text mining to extract the meanings of service documents and the local outlier factor to identify novel services based on quantitative indicators. A case study of mobile services is exemplified. The suggested approach promotes consensus building for promising service opportunities and enhances the efficiency of the fuzzy front-end stages of new service development.     

Collaboration on technological innovation in Danish fashion chains: A network perspective

With brand owners struggling to compete with new products, physical production processes and sourcing logistics, innovation taking place in retail networks is often overlooked. Networks in retailing are comprised by the brand owner, the varieties of single- and multi-brand stores, chains and departments stores, technology and service providers, ownership structures and local level supply chain facilities. This paper analyses theoretical and empirical views of innovation in international retail networks using lead actors in the (Danish) fashion industry as a case to highlight how this industry maintains branded stores as primary retail channels better than other industries. In order to approach the retail network as an important organisational innovation system in relation to brand owners, the aim of this paper is to characterise key elements of innovation in retail networks. The approach of this work is based on four qualitative studies of medium/larger fashion brand owners and their respective retail and service provider networks. The study shows that innovation in retailing has a continuously emergent character with open-ended strategic design requirements and strong utilisation of relations in business networks. The network comprises an innovation system that focuses on organisational learning and iterative development of the intended technologies. Implications of the current study are suggestions to brand owners, network partners and retailers on how to identify, understand, support and promote innovation via this network through systematic management of the network rather than the innovation itself.