Patterns of Service Innovation : An Empirical Study of Automotive Engineering Services in Germany

Abstract

Over the past few decades, scholars have discovered that service innovation transcends the confines of individual organizations and involves interactions and collaborative activities among a network of actors. However, most of the current innovation studies are based on a conceptual view of firm-centric and linear processes of research and development (R&D) that works well in production-oriented economies but may not be as appropriate when it comes to explaining innovation in service-oriented and networked economies, as they become more prevalent in the digital age. As a result, our current understanding of service innovation processes in multi-actor constellations is limited and requires further attention. This thesis contributes a qualitative study, from the automotive engineering service (AES) industry, to the growing body of scholarly work that studies how service innovation emerges from interactions and collaborative activities that take place among a network of actors. In doing so, this thesis employs a qualitative research design that is informed by four different sources of empirical data: preliminary and in-depth interviews, as well as archival data and field observations. The theoretical viewpoint taken in this thesis is informed by the service-dominant (S-D) logic, which entails a broader and systemic view of service innovation. This view emphasizes the centrality of interactions and considers innovation as a process of reconfiguring the institutionalized rules of resource integration in service ecosystems. Based on this perspective, the key finding is an empirically developed process typology that distinguishes five patterns of service innovation in the AES industry. Pre-existing patterns and concepts within the literature are extended and connected through more detailed descriptions of interactions, roles, and activities. Such an in-depth understanding of different service innovation pathways complements and substantiates recent theoretical debates on the connection between service innovation, institutions, and interactions in service ecosystems. Practitioners from the AES industry benefit from this new knowledge because it helps them to understand how their organization needs to interact and operate with other actors from their network to trigger and pursue specific innovation pathways.