Research Methods in Service Innovation provides an essential methodological toolbox for researchers, students and practitioners interested in better understanding innovation and improving innovation processes in service organisations. Each chapter presents a specific method, introduces its theoretical foundations, explains its practical application, and provides examples and suggestions for its implementation. The methods described include original and innovative methodological approaches, such as technology-oriented scenario analysis, experiments and laddering, as well as critical incident techniques, social network analysis, blogs, visual techniques, narratives and future workshops. Together, the chapters encourage readers to understand service innovation research as a process that requires creative methodological thinking. The book adapts various methods and processes from different areas of research, and evaluates their strengths, limitations and possible applications in specific areas of service innovation. Researchers and academics will find this collection to be an essential state-of-the-art resource for research in the fields of service innovation and innovation in general. The book will also appeal to practitioners and consultants dealing with both public and private service organisations. Contributors include: C. Forder, L. Fuglsang, N.N. Grünbaum, A.V. Hansen, F. Lapenta, J.K. Møller, A.R. Olesen, A. Scupola, F. Sørensen, J. Sundbo
Research Methods in Service Innovation provides an essential methodological toolbox for researchers, students and practitioners interested in better understanding innovation and improving innovation processes in service organisations. Each chapter presents a specific method, introduces its theoretical foundations, explains its practical application, and provides examples and suggestions for its implementation.
All the world's most advanced economies are dominated by service. The service sector also employs the largest number of people and it is the fastest growing sector, both in number of companies and employees. The questions posed in the book are: (1) How is it growing; (2) what are these new service innovations; (3) what are the drivers; and (4) how can organizations work with service innovations in a structured way? The book views service as the value-creating activity that customers perform in their own context. The role of a company is to provide the resources and knowledge to enable value creation. Based on this view, we develop a model of service innovation and develop guidelines for what is required from the organizational perspective; how should an organization view its customers in order to be successful, what does a service development process look like, and how to transform an organization that has a product focus to a service or solution provider.
"This book explores areas such as strategy development, service contracts, human capital management, leadership, management, marketing, e-government, and e-commerce"--Provided by publisher.
In the most advanced service economies, services create up to three-quarters of the wealth and 85% of employment, and yet we know relatively little about managing innovation in this sector. The critical role of services, in the broadest sense, has long been recognized, but is still not well understood. Most research and management prescriptions have been based on the experience of manufacturing and high technology sectors. There is a clear need to distinguish which, if any, of what we know about managing innovation in manufacturing is applicable to services, what must be adapted, and what is distinct and different. Such is the goal of this book. This unique collection brings together the latest academic research and management practice on innovation in services, and identifies a range of successful organizational responses to current technological opportunities and market imperatives. The contributors include leading researchers, consultants and practitioners in the field, who provide rigorous yet practical insights into managing and organizing innovation in services. Two themes help to integrate the contributions in this book: . OCo That generic good practices exist in the management and organization of innovation in services, which the authors seek to identify, but that these must be adapted to different contexts, specifically the scale and complexity of the tasks, the degree of customization of the offerings, and the uncertainty of the environment. OCo That innovation in services is much more than the application of information technology (IT). In fact, the disappointing returns to IT investments in services have resulted in a widespread debate about the causes and potential solutions OCo the so-called OC productivity paradoxOCO in services. Instead here the authors adopt a broader notion of innovation, including technological, organizational and market change. The key is to match the configuration of organization and technology to the specific market environment. Sample Chapter(s). Introduction (35 KB). Chapter 1: Managing Service Innovation: Variations of Best Practice (490 KB). Contents: Conceptual and Analytical Frameworks for Service Innovation: Services and the Knowledge-Based Economy (I Miles); Service Innovation: Aiming to Win (T Clayton); Sector and National Studies of Innovation in Services: Innovation in Healthcare Delivery (D J Bower); Product Development in Financial Services: Picking the Right Leader for Success (E Chortatsiani); Applying Innovation Management Good Practice to Services: A Composite Framework of Product Development and Delivery Effectiveness in Services (F M Hull & J Tidd); Product Development in Service Enterprises: Case Studies of Good Practice (F M Hull); and other articles. Readership: Graduate students and researchers in management programs; managers."
How can you establish a customer-centric culture in an organization? This is the first comprehensive book on how to actually do service design to improve the quality and the interaction between service providers and customers. You'll learn specific facilitation guidelines on how to run workshops, perform all of the main service design methods, implement concepts in reality, and embed service design successfully in an organization. Great customer experience needs a common language across disciplines to break down silos within an organization. This book provides a consistent model for accomplishing this and offers hands-on descriptions of every single step, tool, and method used. You'll be able to focus on your customers and iteratively improve their experience. Move from theory to practice and build sustainable business success.
This is an essential read for managers in forms that used to have a product focus and that are trying to shift towards designing services and experiences. By covering the early stages of the innovation process, it guides readers throught developing new knowledge, creating service concepts and prototyping experiences. It's valuable not only for service innovation and design practicioners but also visionary business leaders who understand that creating destinct customer experiences is the future of innovation.
This is a timely and important contribution on innovation processes within the public sector. Departing from the myth of private equal to entrepreneurial, public equal to bureaucratic paralysis , it offers precious insights into public sector learning, entrepreneurship, of course inertias, and also the trade-offs involved in different management philosophies and performance evaluation methods. It is a rare example of political economy done right . Giovanni Dosi, Sant Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa Innovation and entrepreneurship have become the cornerstones for economic growth, jobs and competitiveness in the global economy. However, the burden for generating an innovative economy has fallen on the private sector. Scholars have been remarkably taciturn concerning the role for innovation and entrepreneurship in the public sector has remained strikingly invisible. No more. In Innovation in Public Sector Services, the authors assemble a team of leading international scholars in a path breaking study to identify the potential for the public sector in contributing to innovation and entrepreneurship. In particular, the volume introduces an insightful new analytical framework that lays the foundations for transforming a sleepy public sector into a dynamic, innovative and highly effective partner for leadership and change in the global era. Scholars, policy makers and business leaders who think that the public sector is condemned to being a hindrance to innovation and entrepreneurship rather than a leader championing change and competitiveness in a global economy would be well advised to read this important new book. David B. Audretsch, Indiana University, Bloomington, US and WHU, Germany This groundbreaking book provides new key insights and opens up an important research agenda. The book develops a new taxonomy of the different types of innovation found in public sector services, and investigates the key features and drivers of public sector entrepreneurship. The book contains new statistical studies and a set of six international case studies in health and social services. The research shows that public sector organisations are important innovators in their own right. Economic growth and social development depend on efficient public sector organisations that deliver high quality services, are effectively organised, and have excellent interactions with the private sector, NGOs and citizens. Public sector innovation is complex, invariably involving changes in services, organisational structures, and managerial practices. Essential to successful innovation are the policy entrepreneurs and service entrepreneurs who develop, organise and manage new innovations. This book provides key lessons for these public sector entrepreneurs. Innovation in Public Sector Services fills a fundamental gap; explaining the dynamics of innovation and entrepreneurship in public sector services and is of great importance for researchers, academics and students interested in innovation, entrepreneurship and strategy management. It provides a stimulating read for anyone working or interested in health and social services.
Scientific investigation in the service industry has produced a major effect on productivity and quality in order to lead to new services. With ever-evolving internet technologies and information environments, system science and knowledge science seem to be an effective tool for service innovation in the 21st century. Progressive Trends in Knowledge and System-Based Science for Service Innovation illustrates new approaches to service innovation and new methodologies from the knowledge science and system science perspectives. Practitioners and researchers interested in knowing more about practical theories and successful examples in service science will find this book to be a vital asset to their studies.
Modern economies depend on innovation in services for their future growth. Service innovation increasingly depends on information technology and digitization of information processes. Designing new services is a complex matter, since collaboration with other companies and organizations is necessary. Service innovation is directly related to business models that support these services, i.e. services can only be successful in the long run with a viable business model that creates value for its customers and providers. This book presents a theoretically grounded yet practical approach to designing viable business models for electronic services, including mobile ones, i.e. the STOF model and – based on it – the STOF method. The STOF model provides a ‘holistic’ view on business models with four interrelated perspectives, i.e., Service, Technology, Organization and Finance. It elaborates on critical design issues that ultimately shape the business model and drive its viability.
