Promoting Innovation in Services

ABSTRACT

Recently, it has become increasingly important to promote innovation in the field of services. In response to this need, this report aims to provide an investigative framework for exploring how innovation in services should be encouraged and promoted.

As a foundation to this investigation, it is first necessary to clarify the concepts of services and innovation. Traditional definitions of services are often unclear, as they tend to treat all levels of service together without recognizing the differences between them. To clarify this confusion, this report defines services separately by level and reviews the implications of each, and situates services in the context of "innovation in services". Specifically, service is defined as: "The process of joint creation of value by service providers and clients." Further, the core of this concept is "the process of creating value through the exchange of information between the service-providing entity and the service-receiving entity."

The concept of innovation has also been unclear, and it has not received much discussion within the field of service. For this reason, this report builds off of previous research in innovation in "hard" fields and presents a new service innovation process model. Using this framework, this report presents a method for researching mechanisms that will promote innovation in services. At the same time, the hypothesis that this new innovative service may become evidence-based service is also entertained. Finally, this report summarizes the link between the service innovation process model and the issues of scientific technology and SSME (Services Science, Management and Engineering) that are necessary for promoting service innovation.

In future studies, this framework will serve as a basis from which to analyze a variety of case studies of innovation in services, and to empirically test the validity of the abovementioned hypothesis.