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  1. Abramovici M. & Bancel-Charensol L. (2004). How to take customers into consideration in service innovation projects. Service Industries Journal, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 56 -78.
  2. Abramovici & Bancel-Charensol investigate how service firms can take customers into consideration in service innovation projects. Specific emphasis is put on the validation stage of the innovation project cycle, in which the goal is to validate the chosen technical option through the construction and testing of a prototype. Here the customer can take a partial role in the evaluation. In service innovation the customer’s validation appears to be more complex than the validation of goods innovation.
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  4. Alam I. (2006a). Service innovation strategy and process: a cross-national comparative analysis. International Marketing Review, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 234 -254.
  5. Only limited attention has been paid to the issue of new service development (NSD) in a cross-national context. To address this critique of the literature a comparative cross-national study of NSD strategy and process of financial service firms in Australia and the USA was conducted. The study employs a cross-sectional, survey-based methodology. The US sampling frame included 274 large financial service firms situated in the Northeast region of the USA. The Australian sampling frame consisted of 262 firms situated in the Southeast region of Australia. The findings suggest that new-to-company services, as low cost and less risky option of developing moderately innovative services, is the most popular strategy choice for both Us and Australian firms - even though it has been assumed that highly innovative “new-to-the-world” services may be the best option for a firm.
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  7. Alam I. (2006b). Removing the fuzzyness from the fuzzy front-end of service innovations through customer interaction. Industrial marketing management, Vol. 35, pp. 468 -480.
  8. Alam examines the role of customer interaction in what is called “the fuzzy front-end” of service innovation – i.e. the initial stages of idea generation, idea screening and concept development in new service development. The findings suggest that the fuzzy front-end can be much less fuzzy if customers are involved in the front-end stages of new service development.
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  10. Cainelli, Evangelista & Savona (2004). The impact of innovation on economic performance in services. Service Industries Journal, Vol. 24 No 1, pp. 116 -130.
  11. Cainelli et al. explore the relationship between innovation and economic performance in services. The results show that innovating firms out-perform non-innovating firms in terms of productivity levels and economic growth. Productivity is also found to be linked to the amount of innovation expenditure, especially expenditures on new software.
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  13. Carbonell, P., Rodrígues-Escudero, A.I. & Pujari, D. 2009. Customer Involvement in New Service Development: An Examination of Antecedents and Outcomes. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 26(5), pp. 536–550
  14. The 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. 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. 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.
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  16. Czarnitzki D. & Spielkamp A. (2003). Business services in Germany: bridges for innovation. Service Industries Journal, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 1 -30.
  17. Czarnitzki & Spielkamp examine the role of business services in building bridges for innovation in both the manufacturing and service sectors. The empirical context is business services in Germany. A distinction is made between ordinary standard business services and qualified knowledge-based or knowledge-intensive business services. Specifically the second category is of specific focus in the article. A sound innovation capacity, in particular knowledge, creativity, market and management skills, is a necessary precondition to become a bridge for innovation, the authors claim. They conclude that business services have sufficient innovation potential which makes them good candidates for building bridges for innovation for other firms. The role of business services in an innovation system is thus that of a distributor of knowledge and a transfer agent.
     
  18. den Hertog P. (2000). Knowledge intensive business services as co-producers of innovation. International Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 491 -528.
  19. den Hertog explores what role knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) play in innovation in other firms. KIBS are seen to function as facilitator, carrier or source of innovation in client firms. Through their symbioticlike relationship with client firms some KIBS function as co-producers of innovation. Specifically process-oriented and intangible forms of knowledge flows are crucial in such relationships.
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  21. Drejer, I. (2004) “Identifying Innovation in Surveys of Services: A Schumpeterian Perspective”, Research Policy, 33(3), 551-562.
    In order to compensate for decades of neglect of services in innovation studies, a strand of literature has emerged, which emphasises alleged distinctive features of service innovation. These studies apply innovation concepts developed especially for services, thereby contributing to the existing divide between manufacturing and services. The present paper demonstrates that Schumpeter’s original innovation concept is indeed broad enough to encompass services and manufacturing, and that a more direct reference to Schumpeter, in particular innovation as a contrast to activities based on routine systems, in service oriented studies would add a needed theoretical and conceptual strengthening to service innovation studies.
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  23. Droege, H., Hildebrand, D. & Heras Forcada, M.A. 2009. Innovation in services: present findings and future pathways. Journal of Service Management 20(2), pp. 131–155.
  24. The purpose of the paper is, firstly, to review existing schools of thought and to identify present research fields in new service development (NSD) and service innovation research, and, secondly, to discuss future research opportunities.
     
  25. Froehle & Roth (2007). A resource-process framework of new service development. Production & Operations Management, Vol. 16 No 2, pp. 169 -188.
  26. Froehle & Roth develop a theoretical framework that integrates process and resource orientated perspectives on new service development and in which the investment in key resources for innovation – intellectual, organizational, physical – are interlinked with different stages of the innovation process (design stage, analysis stage, development stage, launch stage).
     
  27. Galleo, J. and Rubalcaba, R. Shaping R&D and services innovation in Europe. International Journal of Services Technology and Management. Vol. 9, No 3-4/2008.
    The objective of the paper is to explore and to better understand commonalities and varieties of innovation across services and business services, within the European Union (EU) context, in particular. The paper presents empirical evidence on innovation sources, innovative profiles, results and impacts, obstacles and public support, based on results derived from Research and Development (R&D) data and on the Community Innovation Survey III (CIS III). Furthermore, due to the particular features of services and service innovations, this paper deals with and emphasises those peculiarities in comparison with profiles of innovation in goods. The results show the importance of taking into consideration differences between service sectors and across EU countries.  
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    Gallouj, F. & Savona, M. 2009. Innovation in services: a review of the debate and a research agenda.Journal of Evolutionary Economics 19(2), pp. 149–172
  29. The paper reviews the debate on innovation in services and suggests a research agenda for the services innovation literature. The paper proposes a reclassification of the literature according to whether it has been mainly assimilated or differentiated with respect to the traditional conceptualization of innovation in the manufacturing sector. In addition, it will review the integrative (or synthesizing) contributions, and suggest a taxonomy for the modes of innovation in services, based on the Lancasterian characteristics-based approach to product definition. The article concludes with a summary of the key arguments and a proposed agenda for the evolutionary theory to integrate the conceptualization of innovation in services.

  30. Gallouj, F. & Weinstein, O. 1997. Innovation in services. Research Policy 26, pp. 537–556
  31. The purpose of this article is to lay the foundations of a theory that can be used to interpret innovation processes in the service sector. The hypothesis underpinning this article is based on Lancaster's definition of the product (in both manufacturing and services) as a set of service characteristics. The article follows the example of those who have sought to apply Lancaster's work to technological phenomena. Various modes of innovation in the service sectors are highlighted and illustrated.
     
  32. Hipp, C. and Grupp, H. (2005) Innovation in the service sector: The demand for service specific innovation measurement concepts and typologies, Research Policy, Vol. 34, pp. 517–535.
  33. There is evidence that the notion of innovation, well established in the manufacturing sector, cannot simply be transposed to the service sector. This article deals critically with existing measurement concepts derived from manufacturing, and introduces a new typology with a view to obtaining a better understanding of innovation in services. Selected results from the German innovation survey are analysed in order to support the conceptual findings and to identify potential improvements. Special attention is directed towards the inclusion of knowledge-intensive business services that are of particular importance for innovation processes.
     
    Howells, J. (2004) “Innovation, consumption and services: encapsulation and the combinatorial role of services”, The Services Industries Journal, Vol. 24, Issue 1, p. 19-36.
  34. The article explores a phenomenon termed 'encapsulation'. Part of this process is the trend in secondary (manufacturing) and primary (agricultural and resource-based) companies towards providing service products that are related to the goods they produce. The study attempts a more distinctive approach of considering the innovation process within services by considering the issue of service consumption, both in combination with manufactured goods and separately on their own (associated with the issue of utility in consumption process).
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  36. Immonen M., Pynnönen M., Partanen J. & Viljainen S. (2010). Mapping future services: a case on emerging smart energy metering business. International Journal of Business Innovation and Research. Vol 4, No 5. pp. 491-514.
  37. Recent regulatory amendments and other major trends in the electricity distribution business will change the business logics of the sector. The forces that drive restructuring can be put into three general categories. Those are: 1) a requirement for a more functional marketplace for energy; 2) combating climate change; 3) requirements for the security of energy supply. In this paper, the authors re-develop the business concept innovation process for applying it to smart energy metering services. Furthermore, they introduce how value flow based business system modeling can be linked with a market emergence model. The main argument of this paper is that including the customer needs in the innovation process and creating a business system based on value flows are the key elements of creating new business models in e-services. Indeed, bundling the roadmaps of intelligent home systems to correspond to converging customer needs is a crucial question for opening the service markets.
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  39. International Journal of Services Technology and Management (IJSTM), Volume 10 - Issue 2/3/4 – 2008, Special Issue on Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS)
  40. Special Issue on Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS). Guest Editors: Associate Professor David Doloreux, Associate Professor Mark Freel and Professor Emmanuel Muller.
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  42. Kox H. & Lejour A. (2006). The Effects of the Services Directive on Intra-Eu Trade and FDI.
  43. International policy heterogeneity creates trade and investment costs for service firms doing business in other countries. Service providers have to comply with different rules in each foreign market where they operate. Complying with these regulations causes fixed market-entry costs, specific for each export market. The authors have found a robust and strong negative impact of policy heterogeneity costs on services trade and FDI.
     
  44. Kristensson P., Matthing J. and Johansson N. (2008). Key strategies for the successful involvement of customers in the co-creation of new technology-based services. International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 19 No.4, pp. 474 -491.
  45. Kristensson et al. discuss and identify seven key strategies required for successful involvement of customers in the co-creation on new technology-based services.
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  47. Koch, A. and Stahlecker, T. (2006), Regional innovation systems and the foundation of knowledge intensive business services. A comparative study in Bremen, Munich and Stuttgart, Germany. European planning studies. Vol. 14 issue 2 pp. 123-146.
    Knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) are believed to be one of the main drivers of technological change, innovation, and economic progress. Although firm foundations play a crucial role among KIBS, entrepreneurship research has hardly ever investigated the sector. As firm founders in early stages of their firms' development mostly draw on regional resources, and as the provision of the services is an interactive process, “proximity” between the different actors of the particular territorial innovation and production system clearly matters. This contribution analyses the interrelationships between KIBS foundations and their respective innovation and production systems by performing qualitative and conceptual in-depth studies of three German metropolitan regions.
      
  48. Lusch, Vargo S. & O’Brien (2007). Competing through service: insights from service-dominant logic. Journal of Retailing, Vol. 83, No 1, pp. 5 -18.
  49. Business scholars and practitioners are aware that competitive advantage can be enhanced through service. It is also clear that there is a link between competitive advantage and superior performance. Yet, by almost any definition or measure, there is little evidence of significantly increasing service. In fact, it is often argued that service is actually on decline, at least in the U.S. marketplace.
     
  50. Miles I. (2000). Service innovation: coming to age in the knowledge-based economy. International Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 4 No 4, pp. 371 -389.
  51. This collection of essays demonstrates that research on services innovation is now a vibrant and mature field within innovation studies. Examining the development of this field, and the contributions of these essays in particular, Miles argues that the time is right for a "marriage" between the study of services innovation and mainstream innovation studies. While there is a great deal to be learned from the study of services innovation, treating this as a separate area of study runs the risk that important lessons for the study of innovation within manufacturing and other sectors may be lost. These essays point the way toward more integrated approaches, which are particularly suitable for studying innovation processes in the knowledge-based economy.
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  53. Neely A. (2008). Exploring the financial consequences of the servitization of manufacturing. Operations Management Research 1(2):103 – 118 
  54. Commentators suggest that to survive in developed economies manufacturing firms have to move up the value chain, innovating and creating ever more sophisticated products and services, so they do not have to compete on the basis of cost. While this strategy is proving increasingly popular with policy makers and academics there is limited empirical evidence to explore the extent to which it is being adopted in practice. And if so, what the impact of this servitization of manufacturing might be. The paper presents an analysis of data which suggests that: [i] manufacturing firms in developed economies are adopting a range of servitization strategies—12 separate approaches to servitization are identified; [ii] these 12 categories can be used to extend the traditional three options for servitization by adding two new categories “integration oriented Product–Service Systems” and “service oriented Product–Service Systems”; [iii] while the manufacturing firms that have servitized are larger than traditional manufacturing firms in terms of sales revenues, at the aggregate level they also generate lower profits as a % of sales; [iv] these findings are moderated by firm size (measured in terms of numbers of employees). In smaller firms servitization appears to pay off while in larger firms it proves more problematic.
     
    The Service Industries Journal, Volume 30 Issue 5 2010: Services, regional development and innovation

  55. The special issue of the Service Industries Journal concentrate on regional innovation policy in different countries as well as the R&D activities in the service field.

    Tether, B. S. (2005) “Do services innovate (differently)? Insights from the
    European Innobarometer survey”, Industry and Innovation, Vol 12, Issue 2, p. 153-184
    Although advanced economies are increasingly dominated by services, relatively little is known about whether and how services innovate. Instead, our understanding of innovation and innovation processes has been very largely derived from studies of manufacturing, and the production of technologically advanced artefacts. As services do not generally produce technologically advanced artefacts, they are often considered to be non-innovative, or “supplier-dominated” recipients of technologies rather than “true innovators”. An alternative perspective is that services tend to innovate differently from manufacturers, or at least that innovation in services brings to the fore “softer” aspects of innovation based in skills and inter-organisational cooperation practices which are pervasive across the economy but which do not tend to be prominent amongst manufacturers, and are therefore neglected. 

  56. Toivonen M. (2006). Future Prospects of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) and Implications to Regional Economies. ICFAI Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 4, No 3.
  57. Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) have aroused much interest during recent years due to their role as central actors in innovation systems. The article discusses the future prospects of KIBS on the basis of the analysis of driving forces and trends. Three driving forces characteristic of today's society seem especially relevant from the viewpoint of KIBS: the development of information and communication technologies, the globalization of the economy and the generalization of network-based business models.
      
  58. Toivonen M., Tuominen T. (2007). Emergence of innovations in Services. 2009. Service Industries Journal, Vol. 29, Issue 7.
    Along with the ’servicisation’ of society, innovation in services has become a topical issue. The paper 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.
     
  59. Vargo S. (2008). Customer Integration and Value Creation: Paradigmatic Traps and Perspectives. Journal of Service Research, Vol. 11 No 2, pp. 211-215

  60. The commentary uses the Customer Integration—Facilities, Transformation, Use (CI-FTU) framework of Moeller as a platform for discussing two nested challenges in the development of service-dominant (S-D) logic. The first is the potency of the traditional, goods-dominant (G-D) logic paradigm, including the pitfalls of using its lexicon for describing a transcending logic. The second is the related need to develop a broader perspective for understanding value creation than is apparent in traditional conceptualizations or in the CI-FTU conceptualization. In addition, the challenge of isolating S-D logic in its rapid evolution beyond G-D logic is discussed.

  61. Wood, P. (2006). The regional significance of knowledge-intensive services in Europe. Innovation. The European Journal of Social Sciences. Volume 19, Number 1, March 2006, pp. 51-66(16)
    The article reviews the work of the 'Knowledge-intensive Services and Innovation' (KISINN) Network, which examined the regional incidence of 'knowledge-intensive business services' (KIBS) across eight European countries in 1996/97. There still seems to be little recognition at this scale that innovation is fundamentally a service-based process. KIBS growth is also generally regarded as economically marginal, rather than as a key component of the corporate-dominated nexus of expertise exchange which now drives regional economic inequality.

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