Service Innovation New Service Development with Deep Involvement of Users and Value Networks

Service innovation has gained interest in recent years due to the importance of services in developed economies. Service innovation includes not only innovation in service industries, but also service innovations as service encapsulation of goods and other services. Still, the literature on service innovation is fragmented and more knowledge is required to develop successful innovation policies and innovation management practices.

This study investigates the relevance of customer involvement and value network partnerships in service innovation. Both topics are reviewed in separate literature studies and sets of testable propositions are developed. The propositions on are further investigated by analyses of secondary data from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS-3), primary data from an empirical study of customer involvement in selected service firms, and case studies. The investigations show that customer involvement and value network partnership can improve service innovation under certain conditions. The findings from this report have implications for innovation policy, service management, and service research.