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EXPLORING CLIENTS’ ROLE IN THE INNOVATION OF ADVERTISING SERVICES: A EUROPEAN SURVEY
... On the other hand, the current literature has further diversified this classification. Some researchers have suggested a third category: C-KIBS [33] or CIBS [29] to highlight creativity-based KIBS, where the critical forms of knowledge are those of a cultural or symbolic nature: advertising and design are examples of this group. ...
Formulation of the problem. The study examines knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms' capability to access, process, and transform information into innovation. KIBS are defined as facilitators, carriers of knowledge, and sources of innovation for other sectors. KIBS play an important role in the production, use, and transfer of knowledge to the manufacturing sector. KIBS activities do not demonstrate a uniform structure within themselves, so a dual classification as professional services (P-KIBS) and technological services (T-KIBS) based on functioning and input has been developed. KIBS activities are concentrated in large cities. Major cities or capitals have well-developed infrastructure, public administration centers, advanced social activities, and numerous research institutes and universities. All of them attract a highly skilled population. Regarding metropolitan city economic growth, KIBS stand out because of their high added value, high income, high innovation returns, and high financial capacity, and they contribute to development. The purpose. The present study aims to reveal the innovative capacities and dynamics of P-KIBS and T-KIBS firms operating in the metropolitan area of Ankara, Turkey's capital city. To reach this aim, Turkey's capital city Ankara is analyzed by using the results of a questionnaire applied to 410 small and medium-sized (SMEs) KIBS firms, 146 of which are P-KIBS firms and other 264 are T-KIBS firms. Methods. In the course of the research and preparation of the article, the authors used several scientific methods, both philosophical and general scientific, as well as specific scientific methods. In particular, the methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and hypothetical-deductive method, mathematical-statistical and spatial analysis, methods of grouping and classification, questionnaires and surveys, etc., were used. The results. There are notable differences between the P-KIBS and T-KIBS firms, considering their spatial distribution patterns and the dynamics of their innovation processes. The spatial distribution patterns of the KIBS firms were revealed. While T-KIBS activities demonstrate a spatial clustering tendency independent of the CBD, the P-KIBS firms prefer to locate within the CBD or its vicinity. KIBS sectors generally prefer to be situated by high-income residents, new settlements, secure and prestigious areas close to large public institutions such as ministries and general directorates. It was revealed that the T-KIBS firms are most densely located in the CBD and newly developing business districts of Balgat and Söğütözü, and in the Technology Development Zones of Ankara. P-KIBS firms, on the other hand, are more widely spread in the Çankaya and Yenimahalle districts. It was found that advances in information and communication technologies have a varied impact on the location selection preferences of P-KIBS and T-KIBS enterprises. According to the research results, the factors influencing the clustering of P-KIBS companies and T-KIBS firms were identified and determined. There is a significant relationship between the innovative P-KIBS and T-KIBS firms and their collaboration with other institutions. As a result of the the study, it has been determined that there is a significant relationship between collaboration, R&D, intrafirm and extrafirm social relationships on the innovation of KIBS firms and also contrasting innovation dynamics related to different classes of KIBS in metropolitan areas.
... Advertising, architecture, and design services are examples of KIBS where such knowledge plays an important role. The terminology of C-KIBS has not yet been widely accepted (and the alternative formulation, CIBS-creativity-intensive business services-is introduced by Masiello et al. (2014), in a study of advertising firms). But the general point about the need to differentiate among distinctive types of KIBS is one made by several writers. ...
Purpose
The substantial growth in literature on Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) has thrown light on their contributions to innovation and innovation systems: this paper is the first of a set that examines major debates and conclusions to have emerged from this growing body of evidence.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a review essay, which also presents relevant statistics. It addresses definitional issues and controversies, and sets out basic trends and characteristics of the KIBS industries. The focus is mainly on KIBS firms, though the production of similar services in other types of organisation is also considered.
Findings
Many of the conclusions of an earlier (2005) review in this journal remain valid, though difficulties in capturing these activities in official statistics, mean that there are many issues that demand closer inspection. Understanding the role and future prospects of KIBS will also require looking beyond the literature that focuses just on KIBS industries
Research limitations/implications
The study involves literature review and statistical analysis. Future work would benefit from involvement of practitioners and users of KIBS.
Practical implications
More explicit consideration of KIBS in statistical frameworks is still required, and novel approaches to data conceptualisation and production should be explored.
Originality/value
The growing literature on KIBS, and its implications for understanding the roles and future development of the firms and their relationships to innovation systems, requires systematic analysis. Available statistics have been brought together, and the paper also reflects critically on the trajectories of research on these topics.
... The newly created knowledge is closely related to new technologies, and KIBS play a role in creating and transferring such technologies to their clients [Amara et al., 2008;Landry et al., 2012]. Some more recent studies have suggested a third category: C-KIBS [Miles, 2012] or CIBS [Masiello et al., 2014] -to highlight creativity-based KIBS, where the critical forms of knowledge are those of a cultural or symbolic nature: advertising and design are examples of this group. Not surprisingly, these different types of knowledge mean that companies belonging to different segments of the sector vary in some key respects. ...
Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) industries demonstrate some of the highest levels of innovation in most developed economies. However, these industries are very heterogeneous. Research on their innovative activities is needed in order to provide evidence to inform policy instruments to support such companies. In this paper, we analyze the innovation configurations of 477 Russian KIBS companies. First, we use factor analysis to study the key features of their innovative behavior: different innovation types and different features of demand for KIBS from innovative clients (volume, range and level of customization of services). Three factors emerge and the KIBS companies are divided into six clusters through the prism of these factors. The clusters are: non-innovators; organizational change innovators; marketing innovators; technology-oriented innovators; non-technological innovators and diversified innovators. Finally, we examine the distribution of companies across the clusters in terms of their size and the type of services.
This paper reviews literature on soft innovation with a focus on soft innovation in the video game industry. A systematic review of books, reports and papers, in all 39 literary works form the bases of this paper. Four streams were identified from the literature - management, design, market and network. Based on the findings some key insights were made. The need for a holistic view of hard and soft innovation is necessary, the product becomes valuable only through experience, the market pressure increases the need for soft innovation, and networking increases knowledge, which generates intangible and tangible value.
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to understand clients' involvement in innovation processes in creative-intensive business services, namely advertising services. Research shows that agency-client relationships are critical to campaign creativity, customer satisfaction and agency performance, but little evidence exists on collaboration with clients for agency's innovation. In order to fill this gap, a framework is developed for the analysis of agency-client co-innovation by integrating studies on customer involvement, service innovation and relationship marketing. This is followed by an exploratory case study of an Italian successful agency aimed at refining the conceptual framework based on field insights. The analysis provides initial interesting insights for the understanding and further investigation of clients' role and involvement in agencies' innovation processes.
This paper is divided into three parts. The first is given over to a summary of the economic debate on the nature of knowledge and on the distinction between information, knowledge and competences. In Section 2, we examine the basic mechanisms of knowledge processing and production, firstly within the general framework of learning cycles or spirals and then more specifically in the context of KIBS transactions. In Section 3, we seek to mark out the boundary and establish the nature of the links between these modes of knowledge processing and innovation in and through the use of KIBS.
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.
This paper examines the influence of marketers on the creativity of their advertising agency. There are three main ways in which marketers affect the creativity of their agency: (1) setting direction, (2) resource allocation, and (3) evaluation. These ideas were empirically measured in 1,011 advertising campaigns via questionnaires given to agency personnel. Strategy has often been a focal point of advertising studies, but this research finds that some sources of strategy are better than others. Merely having strategy in client briefs has little effect on creativity, but the client's willingness to explore new strategic ideas with the agency does have a substantial impact. In general, better-resourced agencies do more creative work, and a key resource is access to top managers. However, sometimes, top-management involvement may lead to counterproductive effects on creativity because of the fear this induces within agencies. Sophisticated, high-ranking clients appear to send a "chilling" effect throughout the agency, thus dampening creative potential. Although this study is based on advertising agency responses rather than advertising client responses, it provides insight into the complicated notion of agency accountability for campaign creativity. In many cases, marketers seeking accountability for their campaign creativity need look no farther than themselves.
Knowledge intensive business service (KIBS) firms must create properly prioritize their clients and assignments to develop successfully. Most KIBS firms, like most organizations, tend to prioritize their goals according to their availability, i.e, randomly. Firms must select their portfolios to balance their short term needs of meeting financial goals and the long-term need to develop more knowledge. This is summarized by one manager as being willing to accept projects randomly, but also being very selective in choosing prospective projects to actively pursue. Since knowledge is the basic product being sold by KIBS firms, the ideal client or project is one that generates as much new knowledge for the firm as it provides to the client.
The purpose of this research is to answer the question: how can a new service development (NSD) program in the financial services industry be managed? More specifically, this research has two objectives: to explore the stages in the NSD process; and to explore how customer input may be obtained in the various stages of the development process. After a review of the new product development literature, the case study methodology involving in-depth interviews with managers and their customers is described. Analysis of the data showed that there were ten stages in the NSD process, and whether those stages were managed linearly or sequentially was a function of the size of the firm. In addition, how NSD managers obtained customer input in each stage, was uncovered. Implications for NSD managers include which stages to concentrate on, and how to capture customer input.
The expression “customer involvement” is finding increasing popularity with popular as well as academic marketing texts. Within the evolving research, customer involvement is cast in an information-processing mould that tends to reduce it to the mere transfer of information from where it exists (customers) to where it is dearly needed (the firm). Customers' active participation is accounted for in economic psychological (contract) terms. Drawing on case study material gleaned from an organisation that adopted a customer involvement strategy, the present paper suggests a conversational approach that regards customers' active participation and involvement in terms of conversational exchanges between customers during which new ideas are jointly co-created and commitment to action is established. Conversation is not only the fostering ground for new ideas and knowledge, but also the source of social agency. Some theoretical and practical implications of the conversation-based customer-firm interface for involving customers are discussed.
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to explore the identification of innovative customers and the effectiveness of employing such customers to generate new service ideas in a technology‐based service setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The first study reported here employs the “technology readiness” (TR) construct and involves telephone surveys with randomly selected Swedish consumers. The second involves a field experiment.
Findings
Findings from Study I suggest that the TR is a useful tool for identifying users who exhibit both innovative attitudes and behaviors. The results from Study II show that users with a high TR are highly creative as reflected by the quantity and quality of new service ideas.
Research limitations/implications
The sample size for Study II was relatively small and making empirical generalizations with confidence should await results from studies involving larger samples. However, in sum the research demonstrates that TR appears to be an effective tool for identifying innovative customers who would be both willing to participate in new service development and capable of generating creative ideas.
Originality/value
Service businesses interested in using customers to help generate new ideas could benefit from this research.
How innovative are the creative industries? What new creative products are they producing? How are their methods of production and product delivery different? Are they more innovative in their back-office processes and their relationships with their clients and consumers?
This study uses innovation research to examine the creative industries. Innovation research has for many years been dominated by studies of traditional manufacturing and high-tech innovation. Recent innovation studies have begun to grapple with service sector and organisational innovation; but there have been few studies of creative industries that use such tools and perspectives. Our report reviews and extends existing studies, combining a literature review with some secondary survey analysis, as well as case studies of four creative industries.
Power does not receive much attention in the services marketing literature, with factors such as trust and commitment (e.g. Morgan and Hunt 1994) attracting most attention. Yet power balances are important elements of many services relationships and understanding the significance of these can provide insight into the manner in which relationships develop and endure. Additionally, the research into this phenomenon has tended to be conducted in either a US or UK context, so this raises questions about whether power (and dependency) are perceived in similar manners in different cultural contexts. This paper uses semi-structured interviews to explore the power balance in advertising agency - client relationships in the Greek market. The findings suggest that the notion of power was perceived to have negative connotations, often results in conflict and that power lies in the hands of the client resulting in negative effects on the performance of an agency and consequently advertising success and services relationships.
On the basis of several nationalandinternational studies in thefield of business and professional services the aim of this paperistoreconsider the core question of provider-customer interface. It first shows that the question of the relationships between internal and external business services may not only be posed in terms of substitution but also in terms of complementarity and interaction. It then analyses the interface as a ‘moment of truth’(i.e. as a process of interaction, as a form of organisation, and as part of both the client's and the consultant's value chain) a ‘moment of trust’ (based upon various modes of interaction and various logics of interface) and a moment of thrust (thanks to innovation).
The intensity of modern business has increased pressure for innovation, which places greater emphasis on creativity. This article explores one of the central sites of creativity in the American corporate world, the advertising agency. We examine how creativity in agencies is managed, controlled, and channeled to produce advertisements. We contend that the brand advertised and the agency’s creative collaborations have properties of ritual symbols and that rituals mediate tension inherent in two forces, stability and change, which define the brand and the advertising collaboration. The article offers an analytical perspective on creativity and a new perspective on rituals and ritual symbols.
When an individual or an organization employs an advertising agency to assist in undertaking promotional activities, a number of factors are involved to ensure that the agency–client relationship runs smoothly. However, for the advertiser, as the relationship develops there can be changes in attitudes toward the advertising agency. This paper analyzes the responses of 82 advertisers regarding different elements in the advertising agency–client relationship and compares them across 4 stages in the agency–client life cycle: (a) Inception, (b) Development, (c) Maintenance, and (d) Dissolution. The results of the survey provide some implications to assist in the understanding of agency–client relationships at different times of the life cycle.
Conducted a longitudinal study of advertising decision-makers (ADMs) from 151 companies to identify key predictors of an agency switch. A 2-wave telephone survey was used. In the 1st wave, 1 ADM from each of the companies was questioned about his/her perceptions of ad agencies and about his/her current agency. The 2nd wave was conducted 1 yr later and determined whether 141 of the companies had changed agencies since the 1st interview. Discriminant analysis revealed a key set of 6 predictor variables which discriminate between ADMs who change agencies and ADMs who do not. Higher satisfaction with creative skills was a significant predictor of agency change. Results suggest the existence of distinct stages of development in the agency–client relationship in which an initial focus on creative potential shifts to a focus on performance and service skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Purpose
The aim is to propose a conceptual framework consisting of research propositions concerning the key strategies required for the successful involvement of customers in the co‐creation of new technology‐based services.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology involves a single case study from which data are derived and analyzed using the grounded theory methodology of “constant comparative analysis.” User‐generated ideas for future mobile phone services are collected from four user involvement projects and analyzed at several workshops attended by senior managers from telecommunications firms.
Findings
Seven key strategies are identified as being essential for successful user involvement in new product development. Each strategy is described and illustrated in relation to existing theory and presented as a research proposition.
Research limitations/implications
The exploratory nature of the research means that the findings are tentative and need to be confirmed in other settings by other researchers, including quantitative large‐scale studies.
Practical implications
The results of the study provide management with guidelines for organizing successful user involvement projects with a market‐oriented approach.
Originality/value
Despite the increasing popularity of user involvement, little research has examined the conditions required for successful user involvement in new product development. This study makes an original contribution by proposing strategies critical for a successful outcome.
User involvement in the development of new products may offer a novel approach to improved methods of meeting customer needs. These users are considered to offer possibilities for generating original, valuable, and realizable ideas leading to successful innovation. However, the merit of users' ideas compared to ideas generated by the company itself has not been investigated empirically. In the present study, advanced users, ordinary users, and professional product developers were given the task of creating ideas for future mobile phone services. The main purpose was to examine the benefit of involving users in suggesting new product ideas in an innovation project. An experimental three-group design was used in order to assess the output in terms of its original, valuable, and realizable merit. The results indicated that ordinary users create significantly more original and valuable ideas than professional developers and advanced users. Professional developers and advanced users created more easily realizable ideas, and ordinary users created the most valuable ideas. The results were discussed from the viewpoint of divergent thinking. It was suggested that divergent thinking was facilitated through the opportunity to combine different information elements that appeared separate at the outset, such as personal needs coupled with the functionality of mobile phone services.
poLCA is a software package for the estimation of latent class and latent class regression models for polytomous outcome variables, implemented in the R statistical computing environment. Both models can be called using a single simple command line. The basic latent class model is a finite mixture model in which the component distributions are assumed to be multi-way cross-classification tables with all variables mutually independent. The latent class regression model further enables the researcher to estimate the effects of covariates on predicting latent class membership. poLCA uses expectation-maximization and Newton-Raphson algorithms to find maximum likelihood estimates of the model parameters.
- This paper describes the process of inducting theory using case studies from specifying the research questions to reaching closure. Some features of the process, such as problem definition and construct validation, are similar to hypothesis-testing research. Others, such as within-case analysis and replication logic, are unique to the inductive, case-oriented process. Overall, the process described here is highly iterative and tightly linked to data. This research approach is especially appropriate in new topic areas. The resultant theory is often novel, testable, and empirically valid. Finally, framebreaking insights, the tests of good theory (e.g., parsimony, logical coherence), and convincing grounding in the evidence are the key criteria for evaluating this type of research.
This book demonstrates pioneering work on user-based service innovation using an analytical framework. This approach involves understanding the needs of users, the service firms collaborating with them, and recognising the fact that users are innovators and, as such, services develop while in use. As well as presenting case studies, the book discusses theoretically what user-based innovation means in the context of services. Three main fields are analysed: user-based innovation in knowledge-intensive business service, user-based innovation in public services, and models and methods for structuring user-based innovation.
The world's developed economies are increasingly oriented around services, with services comprising more than 70% of aggregate gross domestic product and employment in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. As a result, both individual companies and entire economies face the challenge of how to innovate in services. In earlier work, the author has argued for the concept of open innovation - that companies should both organize their innovation processes to be more open to external knowledge and ideas and also let more of their ideas and knowledge flow to the outside when not being used internally. Yet initial discussion of open innovation contrasted it to traditional R&D and product development; this had the effect of placing the focus more on product and technology innovation than on service innovation. Open innovation works somewhat differently in service businesses, in part because the role of the customer is different; in a service business, the customer is often involved in an iterative process with the company that results in a customer experience. In addition, innovation processes work differently in services. Few companies have formal R&D operations for the services they provide, and the customer may need to participate throughout the service innovation process. Some of the concepts of open innovation apply readily to service innovation. For example, Amazon. com has not only created open service innovation by bringing the "outside in" - think of customer reviews on Amazon.com and third parties selling products via Amazon's site - but also by taking the "inside out," by, for example, using internal knowledge and infrastructure to create a business selling cloud computing services to other companies. Companies interested in moving toward open service innovation can try techniques such as working closely with customers to develop new solutions for them; focusing offerings on utility for customers, rather than on products; and embedding the company in a customer's organization. Companies that have traditionally been product oriented may need to make some organizational changes, such as changing service pricing, as they move to a more service-oriented approach. Reprint 52211. To order reprints of this article, see page 8.
This paper deals with the problem of measuring Customer Satisfaction using several ordinal variables with different number of categories. Some multivariate methods are applied to the results of a survey on the users of the Contact Center of the Municipality of Parma, in order to measure the quality of the service and the citizen satisfaction. Different approaches for the quantification of ordinal responses are considered and compared. The results show that the multidimensional approach yields a more appropriate estimate for classes of unsatisfied, fairly satisfied and very satisfied respondents.
Purpose
– The current research aims to analyze antecedents and consequences of using the information provided by customers involved in new service development (NSD). It also seeks to examine the moderating effect of technological turbulence on the antecedents and consequences of information use.
Design/methodology/approach
– Data were collected from service firms in a variety of industrial sectors. Unit of analysis was a NSD project in which current or potential customers were involved during its development process. A self-administered mail survey was used to collect the data. A total of 102 complete questionnaires were returned. The proposed model was tested using partial least squares.
Findings
– The results indicate that the instrumental use of the information collected from customers involved in NSD can lead to higher service advantage and service newness and in turn to higher market performance. Findings reveal that higher recording and reviewing of information collected from customers involved in NSD result in greater use of the information during the NSD process. An important result is that under technologically turbulent environments, recording and reviewing information from customers involved in NSD is less likely to result in a higher instrumental use of such information. Finally, the authors' results show that when technological turbulence is high the instrumental use of information from customers involved in NSD has lower value for both service advantage and service newness.
Originality/value
– Findings confirm the importance of customer involvement for NSD in a business context. Using the information from customers involved in NSD to resolve specific problems or make decisions regarding NSD projects can result in enhanced service performance. Moreover, information processing capabilities are key antecedents to instrumental information use. Finally, managers should be aware of the potential negative effect of technological turbulence.
Managers aiming to utilise the potential of involving ordinary users in ideation for innovation receive very little guidance from the existing literature with regard to how to do so in a satisfactory way. This paper aims to fill this knowledge gap by contributing to a better understanding of how users contribute to the ideation process of technology-based services, as well as how users may satisfactorily be managed within it. This is accomplished by identifying and investigating different ideation patterns and their effects on the created ideas' characteristics in the context of mobile telephony services. The current paper is based on a quasi-experimental study lasting 12 days and involving 56 ordinary users and 12 professionals as idea creators. Three different groups of users and one reference group of professionals were used. The paper inductively identifies four different ideation patterns leading to different types of ideas with regard to their innovativeness (incremental/radical). These are further related to the existing literature. The paper concludes with the managerial implications concerning how to manage user involvement for ideation to obtain either more incremental or more radical ideas.
Spaces of flows have become basic processes and elements in the development of space economies and cities. The objective in this study is to understand spaces of flows of advanced producer services. This article focuses on advertising firms in the geographical context of Sweden and Stockholm. The analysis considers advertising activities in the context of globalisation and post-modern economies. The empirical data for this article are derived from secondary sources, including statistics, firm directories, and business journals. The conclusions indicate multi-scalar relations of advertising agencies. Relationships with clients tend to be local or national. At the same time, there are international intra-organisational connections and flows. Advertising activities have consolidated under transnational organisations.
A common characteristic of knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) firms is that clients routinely play a critical role in co-producing the service solution along with the service provider. This can have a profound effect on both the quality of the service delivered as well as the client's ultimate satisfaction with the knowledge-based service solution. Based on research conducted with an IT consulting firm and work done with other knowledge-intensive business service providers, this article describes clients' key role responsibilities that are essential for effective client co-production in KIBS partnerships. It then presents strategies that service providers can use to manage clients so they perform their roles effectively. By strategically managing client co-production, service providers can improve operational efficiency, develop more optimal solutions, and generate a sustainable competitive advantage.
New service development relies on the complex task of understanding and anticipating latent customer needs. To facilitate proactive learning about the customer, recent findings stress customer involvement in the development process and observations of customers in real action. This paper draws on theory from market and learning orientation in conjunction with a service-centered model, and reviews the literature on customer involvement in innovation. A field experiment was conducted in Sweden with end-user mobile phone services. The design departures from the nature of service that precepts value-in-use and by borrowing from relevant techniques within product innovation that supports learning in customer co-creation. The experiment reveals that the consumers' service ideas are found to be more innovative, in terms of originality and user value, than those of professional service developers.
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.
The existing literature on knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) predominantly focuses on their role as innovation agents in innovation systems, with limited attention to innovation of KIBS firms in its own right. Using a sample of 181 KIBS firms in Singapore, this paper examines the key determinants of innovation behavior of KIBS firms. We find that knowledge interaction with manufacturing clients is positively associated with KIBS firms' own innovation. We also find that export intensity, a strategic focus on marketing and communications, and human capital intensity are positively related to KIBS firms' own innovation.
In industrialised services activities designed for customers, the success of the innovation depends on, besides the traditional factors used, the way the customer deals with the innovation, all the more so when the innovation introduced has modified the tasks conferred upon him in the service production process. In these conditions, how can the validation of innovation by the customer from concept definition to the implementation of the evaluation methods be integrated? This article first discusses theoretical works in project management to answer this question for service innovation projects. The basis for the analysis is a series of three case studies of French services firms. It underlines the diversity of solutions used by firms. This preliminary research makes two methodological points. First, it presents different ways of identifying the stages in which these problems can be solved. Second, it clarifies what should be validated at each stage, and which factors determine the methods and the necessary resources to carry them through.
The airline industry will be going through dramatic changes in the years to come. This is due foremost to altered customer demands and expectations but also to deregulation of the airline business. Many airline companies have lost track of the true needs of their passengers and are trapped in outdated views of what airline services are all about. The paper illustrates how Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) has carried out thorough investigations into the concerns of the customers throughout the entire travel experience. Based on the results, SAS has developed new services and redesigned old services. One of the key issues in the paper is the way SAS has chosen to develop the new services, namely to allow the passengers to define the process as opposed to defining it from the company perspective.
The purpose of this study was to develop the yet limited empirical knowledge on the intensity of customer interaction and on specific customer roles in service innovation processes. An empirical study of twelve (12) business service innovation projects was conducted in cleaning and security, financial, and ICT services. Overall, direct customer interaction in service development can be characterised as being limited and focused on specific, well-defined tasks in these service sectors, which offer support services to their customers. In the analysis, three highly important customer roles emerged: 1. Customers act as catalysts of service development processes. 2. Customer feedback is often decisive in nature, allowing for go/kill decisions and directing other key decisions. 3. Customers have a key role in internal marketing of the new service idea within the provider organisation.
Although user involvement is frequently practiced in companies, the research findings regarding its benefits for innovation are contradictory. This article experimentally assesses the contributions made by users in comparison with professional service developers and examines how the implementation of user involvement affects the outcome. During periods of 12 days, three different groups were assigned the task of generating ideas for end user telecom services. One group consisted of professional de signers, whereas the other two consisted of ordinary users. The users in one of the groups coped with idea creation by themselves, whereas the other group consulted a service design expert at two controlled meetings who provided feedback regarding technical feasibility. Involving users makes the ideas more original, holding a higher perceived user value, but the users’ideas are less producible on aver-age. The outcome was also affected by how user involvement was implemented. Scholarly and managerial implications conclude the article.
This article develops indicators to capture six forms or types of innovation in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS): product, process, delivery, strategic, managerial and marketing innovations. It also proposes a conceptual framework inspired by the knowledge-based theory using different categories of knowledge assets as explanatory variables. Then, based on data of 1124 small and medium KIBS, multivariate probit regression models are estimated. The results show that product, process, strategic, managerial and marketing innovations are complementary. The results also show that the different forms of innovation are explained by different explanatory variables.
Customer involvement has been recognized as an important factor for successful service development. Despite its acknowledged importance, a review of the literature suggests that there is little empirical evidence about the effectiveness and outcomes of interacting with customers while developing new services. Similarly, the extant literature shows mixed views about the effect of technological uncertainty on customer involvement and the effectiveness of customer involvement at different stages of the new service development process. Against this backdrop, the present study has three objectives: (1) to investigate the effects of customer involvement on operational dimensions (i.e., innovation speed and technical quality) and market dimensions (i.e., competitive superiority and sales performance) of new service performance; (2) to examine the effect of technological novelty and technological turbulence on customer involvement; and (3) to explore the moderating effect of the stage of the development process on the relationships among technological novelty, technological turbulence and customer involvement, and customer involvement and new service performance. A total of 807 firms with 75 or more employees in a varied set of industries were selected from the Dun & Bradstreet's 2004 listing of Spanish service firms. A questionnaire was mailed to the person in charge of new service development at each company. A total of 102 complete questionnaires were returned. Findings reveal that whereas customer involvement has a positive direct effect on technical quality and innovation speed, it has an indirect effect on competitive superiority and sales performance through both technical quality and innovation speed. The study also finds a positive effect of technological novelty as well as technological turbulence on customer involvement. Contrary to expectations, the study does not find any moderating effects of the stage of the development process. This study has several theoretical and managerial implications. In terms of theoretical implications, the study supports the role of technological uncertainty (novelty and turbulence) as an antecedent to customer involvement. It also provides empirical evidence of the impact of customer involvement on operational and market dimensions of new service performance. In terms of managerial implications, the study offers critical insights on how customer involvement in new service development translates into improved new service performance. Furthermore, it reveals that the importance of customer involvement in technologically uncertain contexts and its impact on new service performance are independent of the stage of the development process, suggesting that managers should involve customers throughout the entire development process.
In the unfolding knowledge-based economy, services do matter. But while they are increasingly seen to play a pivotal role in innovation processes, there has been little systematic analysis of this role. This essay presents a four-dimensional model of (services) innovation, that points to the significance of such non-technological factors in innovation as new service concepts, client interfaces and service delivery system. The various roles of service firms in innovation processes are mapped out by identifying five basic service innovation patterns. This framework is used to make an analysis of the role played by knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in innovation. KIBS are seen to function as facilitator, carrier or source of innovation, and through their almost symbiotic relationship with client firms, some KIBS function as co-producers of innovation. It is further argued that, in addition to discrete and tangible forms of knowledge exchange, process-oriented and intangible forms of knowledge flows are crucial in such relationships. KIBS are hypothesised to be gradually developing into a "second knowledge infrastructure" in addition to the formal (public) "first knowledge infrastructure", though there is likelihood of cross-national variations in the spill-over effects from services innovation in and through KIBS, and in the degree to which KIBS are integrated with other economic activities. Finally, some implications for innovation management and innovation policy are discussed.
This book deals with how companies can involve customers or users in order to learn with them in the field of service-based business development. It presents a variety of customer-involvement approaches, methods for learning with customers, and the results of case studies conducted in both service and manufacturing companies focusing on value-creation through services. Based on research carried out by several research groups around the world, as well as on illustrative cases, the book creates new actionable knowledge regarding customer-involvement which will be useful for both practitioners and scholars. Benefits for readers include: an understanding of the business potential of learning with customers and other users; an overview of the fields of new service development and customer-involvement with regard to concepts, theoretical frameworks, and models, in addition to strategies and techniques for involving users in fruitful ways during the innovation process; an illustration of the cases based on the results of empirical studies; and managerial implications and guidelines regarding how to manage customer-involvement during the different phases of the new service and business development process.
Customer involvement has been recognized as a key factor for successful service development. One important aspect affecting the outcome of new service development (NSD) projects in whose development customers are involved is the choice of the appropriate participating customer. This study examines the effect of two customer’s characteristics (relational closeness and lead-userness) on four indicators of new service performance. The paper uses data from 102 NSD projects. Covariance-based path analysis is used to test the model. Results reveal that involving close customers in the NSD process has a positive direct effect on service advantage and speed to market and a positive indirect effect on market performance. The involvement of lead users, on the other hand, has a positive effect on service newness and service advantage, and a negative effect on market performance. Findings from this study suggest that firms need to make conscious choices about the types of customers to involve in service innovation as different types of customers affect new service performance differently.
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The main objective of this article is to report the empirical findings from a study on user involvement in service innovation. In doing this, we seek to answer the question of how user involvement affects the originality of new service ideas. An experimental investigation was carried out which included 54 participants arranged into three groups of creative users, ordinary users and professional service developers. The empirical data revealed that the users produced more original ideas than the company’s professional service developers. It is thus suggested that business organizations attempt to innovate original products would benefit from involving their customers.
At its heart this book is about innovation and the innovation process. On the way, it considers culture and the cultural industries, aesthetics, creativity and the creative industries, and a number of other similar areas of study, but the common point of interest is innovation. One main purpose of the book is to argue that there is a type of innovation, here labelled soft innovation, primarily concerned with changes in products (and perhaps processes) of an aesthetic or intellectual nature, that has largely been ignored in the study of innovation prevalent in economics. Examples of innovations that, as a result of this refocusing, are here placed at the centre of the analysis, include the writing and publishing of a new book; the writing, production, and launching of a new movie/film; the development and launch of a new advertising promotion; the design and production of a new range of furniture; and architectural activity in the generation of new-built form designs. The realisation of the existence of soft innovation means that not only is innovation more widespread than previously thought, but may also take a different form than commonly considered. The book has three parts. Part 1 is concerned with attempts to define and measure the extent and nature of soft innovation, with Chapter 1 introducing and overviewing the whole. Part 2 of the book is directed towards the economic analysis of soft innovation. Part 3 of the book is concerned with impacts and implications.
Accurate marketing research depends on accurate user judgments regarding their needs. However, for very novel products or in product categories characterized by rapid change—such as “high technology” products—most potential users will not have the real-world experience needed to problem solve and provide accurate data to inquiring market researchers. In this paper I explore the problem and propose a solution: Marketing research analyses which focus on what I term the “lead users” of a product or process.
Lead users are users whose present strong needs will become general in a marketplace months or years in the future. Since lead users are familiar with conditions which lie in the future for most others, they can serve as a need-forecasting laboratory for marketing research. Moreover, since lead users often attempt to fill the need they experience, they can provide new product concept and design data as well.
In this paper I explore how lead users can be systematically identified, and how lead user perceptions and preferences can be incorporated into industrial and consumer marketing research analyses of emerging needs for new products, processes and services.
Many services can be self-provided. An individual user or a user firm can, for example, choose to do its own accounting - choose to self-provide that service - instead of hiring an accounting firm to provide it. Since users can 'serve themselves' in many cases, it is reasonable to suspect that they can also innovate with respect to the services they self-provide - possibly without the assistance of service providers. In this paper, we conduct the first quantitative exploration of the importance of services innovation by users, focusing on the field of commercial and retail banking services. We find that 55% of today's computerized commercial banking services were first developed and implemented by non-bank firms for their own use, and 44% of today's computerized retail banking services were first developed and implemented by individual service users rather than by commercial financial service providers. Manual precursors to these services - manual procedures that carried out functions similar to computerized services in our sample - were almost always developed by users as self-services. Our empirical findings differ significantly from prevalent producer-centered views of service development. We speculate that the patterns we have observed in banking with respect to the major role of users in service development will prove to be quite general. If so, this will be an important matter: on the order of 75% of GDP in advanced economies today is derived from services. We discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice in service development.
A method of estimating the product moment correlation from the polychoric series is developed. This method is shown to be a generalization of the method which uses the tetrachoric series to obtain the tetrachoric correlation. Although this new method involves more computational labor, it is shown to be superior to older methods for data grouped into a small number of classes.