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.     

Interactions,innovation, and services

Although research has acknowledged the importance of supplier–buyer relationships for goods innovation, empirical evidence on the extent and nature of the effects of original equipment manufacturing (OEM) supplier–buyer relationships on service innovation remains scarce. Based on a survey of 152 suppliers in Taiwan, this study concludes that the interaction orientation of OEM suppliers is a key factor influencing the development of two competencies: joint innovation competence and cross-functional information dissemination competence. These two competencies contribute to OEM suppliers’ exploitative service innovation and explorative service innovation, respectively. In other words, applying a resource-based view, this study provides clarity regarding the linkages shown below (an organization’s strategic orientation influences its development of organizational capabilities and results in organizational performance) for the purpose of exploring the relationship between interaction orientation and service innovation.     

The case of market and system failures in services innovation

This paper reviews and analyses the rationale for an innovation policy in services. It focuses on the relevance of the various categories of market and system failures, on the basis of economic arguments and some empirical evidence at EU level. Results show that market and system failures affect service innovation, so that there are no economic reasons supporting any discrimination of policy actions against service activities. Moreover, some of the market and system failures may be even more relevant in the field of services than of goods, although differences between categories of services should be also taken into consideration.     

Operationalisation of service innovation: a systems thinking approach

This paper initialises an effort to explore the impact of an innovative systems thinking approach for service operations design on creating innovation. A qualitative exploratory case study approach in two of the UK’s service sector departments was conducted, using face-to-face semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and extractions from both observations and documents. The results identify that operationalising service innovation is positively linked with applying the Vanguard Method for service operations design. Twelve micro-determinants for service innovation operationalisation have been identified that reside at three different levels in the service organisation, namely employees level (i.e. Micro), the functional level (i.e. Meso), and corporate level (i.e. Macro). The value of this paper is the introduction of a step-by-step guidance on how to build service operations design to operationalise service innovation, the paper also theorises service innovation with systems thinking methodology that emphasises holistic, multi-disciplinary, and integrative characteristics of the service system.     

Measurement of innovation activities in the knowledge-intensive services industry: a trademark approach

Innovation measurement in the knowledge-intensive services (KIS) industry is very complex, due to a lack of adequate innovation indicators. A rather new empirical approach involves the analysis of trademarks for the measurement. This paper aims to explore the use and relevance of trademarks for service firms. Data from the German section of the ‘Community Innovation Survey’ are used, and a survey with 278 participating firms is conducted. The results of the two independent empirical studies demonstrate that a trademark can be used as an innovation indicator, at least for knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) and product innovations. The results also illustrate which firm-inside and environmental features explain the use of trademarks as an intellectual property protection measure.     

Are there barriers to innovation in retailing?

Recent data from the Community Innovation Survey challenge some of the conventional arguments that retailing is inherently less innovative than other sectors within developed economies. According to the data, firms in the UK retail sector are now converging on the all-sector average. Drawing on qualitative research undertaken within retail firms, this article begins by examining some of the implications of this and the reasons why survey data may still underestimate the extent of innovation in the sector. One of the potential contributory factors to an increase in reported levels of innovation may be a reduction in barriers to innovation. In a new analysis of the data, the article explores the nature and incidence of such barriers in the UK. It judges that, although barriers were already perceived to be low, further reductions may have played a part in stimulating innovation. However, amongst other factors, it also notes that the sector still lacks any reliance upon universities and HEIs to assist with strategic innovation. The article further concludes that present economic conditions are likely to detrimentally affect a number of the cost and market factors, which are the most significant barriers to innovation in the sector.     

Organizational innovation,technological innovation,and export performance: The effects of innovation radicalness and extensiveness

This study focuses on the relevance of different types of innovation for firms’ export performance. Despite ample research on the innovation–performance relationship, previous studies have mainly focused on technological innovations, leaving the effects of organizational innovations relatively unexplored. Hypotheses on the relationship between organizational and technological innovations and firm export performance are tested by structural equation modelling using data from 218 Swedish export ventures. The results indicate that organizational innovation enhances export performance both directly and indirectly by sustaining technological innovation. Moreover, by fine-graining our analysis of the mediating role of technological innovation, according to its radicalness and extensiveness, for organizational innovation, we show how the latter enhances both the radicalness and extensiveness of technological innovation although, notably, only extensiveness is actually beneficial for export performance. This study helps alleviate the scarcity of research examining the links among different types of innovation in relation to export performance and contributes to international business and marketing literature by generating new evidence regarding the mechanisms through which organizational and technological innovations may improve export performance.     

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.     

Emergence of innovations in services

Along with the ‘servicisation’ of society, innovation in services has become a topical issue. However, analytical and detailed discussion about the nature of service innovations and their emergence is only beginning. This article aims to contribute to this discussion through a theoretical analysis supplemented with findings from two empirical case studies. The theories examined are multi-disciplinary including general service theories, general innovation theories and theories linked to new service development and innovation management. The empirical studies have been carried out in Finland in the fields of real estate and construction services and of knowledge-intensive business services.     

Measuring innovation in services: the role of surveys

The main aim of this paper was to analyse the role of European innovation surveys in measuring innovation in services. The various community innovation surveys (CISs) are analysed in the light of the three main theoretical approaches to innovation in services, namely assimilation, service-oriented and integrative. The analysis performed shows a gradual change in the way in which European surveys have been structured over time, highlighting a partial shift from the assimilation approach towards the integrative one. Furthermore, the paper provides a systematic assessment of the CIS experience and of the lessons to be drawn from it.     

Innovation,network services and the restructuring of work organisation in customer services

The information and communication technology revolution has had important qualitative effects on the manner in which the output of new products and services is managed. This is in part associated with leveraging the knowledge of a broader group of employees. Through a case study of customer services in a major telecommunications firm, it is shown that integrating broader groups of employees into the innovation process can be vital. However a case is made that transforming work-related institutions in the firm has proved a challenging process, particularly when management are required to broaden the powers of decision making granted to employees, allowing greater discretion at the workplace and changing the manner in which work tasks are enforced.     

Innovation source,advancement stage and company stock returns

The purpose of this paper was to measure the short- and long-term impact of innovation announcements on the stock returns of service companies. In order to study the predictors of the abnormal stock returns, the study takes the adoption and diffusion theory as its conceptual background. The research was based on an event study and buy-and-hold methods. It encompassed 398 announcements released for 121 companies in EU member states between February 2011 and December 2016. The study deepens the dialogue on the role of the source of innovation and its advancement stage. It indicates a positive market reaction to high innovation advancement stage announcements in comparison to low advancement stage ones. Furthermore, it suggests a positive market reaction to in-house development in comparison to collaborative development and copying. Finally, the research signals that the innovation advancement stage complements its source by clarifying its relationship with abnormal market value changes.     

Co-creation and innovation in public services

Public-sector services feature some very specific characteristics that frequently prove to be obstacles to innovation. This article therefore discusses how co-creation, within a Service-Dominant (S-D) logic, may contribute to innovation in these organisations and overcome the challenges posed by scarce resources and a multiplicity of clients and objectives and maintain citizen consensus around these activities. This discussion is backed up by examples drawn from the United Nations awards made annually for the best public-sector practices and innovations.     

Innovation dialectics: an extended process perspective on innovation in services

Services are characterised by the involvement of customers and other interest groups in the innovation process. The aim of this study is to understand how and why, in the service context, tensions and potential conflicts between heterogeneous interest groups unfold during processes of innovation. The empirical field in which the investigation was set is facility services, a type of business-to-business support services. The findings were extracted from a longitudinal, in-depth case study of a Danish, multi-national organisation over 13 years, complemented with an explorative study in the Danish facility service context. The findings suggest that tensions and conflicts between heterogeneous interest groups are an intrinsic element of innovation processes in services, and that emphasising them might actually support a clearer understanding of processes of innovation in services. The outcome of the analysis is a process model, which proposes innovation dialectics as one of the driving mechanisms of innovation in services.     

Innovation analytics: Leveraging artificial intelligence in the innovation process

Artificial intelligence (AI) is about imbuing machines with a kind of intelligence that is mainly attributed to humans. Extant literature—coupled with our experiences as practitioners—suggests that while AI may not be ready to completely take over highly creative tasks within the innovation process, it shows promise as a significant support to innovation managers. In this article, we broadly refer to the derivation of computer-enabled, data-driven insights, models, and visualizations within the innovation process as innovation analytics. AI can play a key role in the innovation process by driving multiple aspects of innovation analytics. We present four different case studies of AI in action based on our previous work in the field. We highlight benefits and limitations of using AI in innovation and conclude with strategic implications and additional resources for innovation managers.     

Development of new technology-based services

In an environment where customers can hardly describe new technology-based services (TBSs) of the future and technological engineers are unlikely to understand how a new technology can work for new services, a guideline to generate ideas for TBS can be utilized to achieve successful service innovation. Thus, this paper aims to develop an ideation framework for TBS. Two methods – the technology tree and the function analysis systems technique – are employed to identify core utilities expected from a new technology. Then a new method, the service encounter value matrix, which is based on morphology analysis and is used for generating potential service ideas, is suggested. Finally, these ideas are evaluated, and only those that are of a high priority according to customers’ expectations of future society are selected. In this study, the framework is applied to telecommunication technology, which is timely and useful for designing future services.     

The link between innovation and productivity in Estonia's services sector

This paper investigates how the innovation–productivity relationship differs across various sub-branches of the services sector. The Crépon, Duguet and Mairesse structural model is used, consisting of equations for innovation expenditures, innovation output, productivity and exports. The data are taken from the Community Innovation Surveys for Estonia. It is shown that innovation is associated with increased productivity. The results indicate, surprisingly, that the association between technological innovation and productivity is stronger in the less knowledge-intensive service (KIS) sectors. Non-technological innovation plays a positive role especially in KISs. An indirect channel of the effects of innovation on productivity appears to function through increased exports.     

The evolution of service innovation research: a critical review and synthesis

The number of service innovation articles has increased dramatically in the past 25 years. By reviewing 128 articles published between 1986 and 2010, primarily in leading marketing and innovation journals, this study analyzes the progression of service innovation research according to topicality and perspective. The authors summarize prior research by clustering it into three evolutional phases and drawing parallels with the evolution of the wider services marketing field. Overall, the view of service innovation has evolved, from a complement of traditional product innovation to a multidimensional, all-encompassing notion that entails several functions, both within and outside the firm.     

Productivity in the services sector: conventional and current explanations

One of the most conventional statements in economics, with regard to the services sector, suggests that, as a whole, this sector has a lower productivity level and growth rates than the other productive sectors. From this approach, we can derive the relative lower productivity in some advanced economies (such as the European countries versus the USA and some particular emergent economies) as an explanation of the growth of the tertiary sector. This paper will look in greater depth at issues related to services productivity, from conceptual aspects regarding the definition and meaning of productivity to methodological and measurement of services productivity. This work is essentially a necessary revision of the literature on economic growth, productivity and the services sector, reviewing not only the conventional literature but also those new waves of thinking.     

Making bottom-up and top-down processes meet in public innovation

Innovations in an organisation derive from multiple sources. In the public sector, users and the policy sphere provide important but often unconnected impulses for innovation. These impulses are transmitted to the organisation by grassroots employees who interact with users and managers who implement policy requirements. The paper examines the actors and activities that coordinate bottom-up and top-down initiatives and promote their development into innovations. It creates a theoretical framework that combines the views of employee-driven innovation and strategic reflexivity and supplements them with an analysis of coordination in innovation processes. The functioning of this framework is illustrated in the context of children's day care services. The results highlight the central role of middle managers and provide new knowledge regarding their ‘bridging’ activities in innovation. The adjustment of bottom-up and top-down processes requires the personal involvement of managers, and the creation of communication arenas, networks and mediating tools.