To join or not to join? Insights from coopetitive RD&I projects

Multipartner research, development and innovation (RD&I) projects are increasingly used to achieve complex innovation goals and keep pace with today's technological imperatives. The involvement of both competing and noncompeting partners increases the complexity of the relationships and poses a challenge to the outcomes of such projects. Therefore, the right choice of partners is particularly important in this context. Although previous research has mainly examined how focal firms deliberately select collaborative partners, this study demonstrates how non-focal firms evaluate invitations to participate in RD&I projects with multiple partners and direct competitors. Going beyond …

Towards a framework for New Service Development Practices

Different frameworks for New Service Development (NSD) practices have been suggested by prior conceptual research. We have assessed three frameworks frequently referred to in extant research, and exposed how these three cover different dimensions of NSD practices. By exploring the practices of NSD empirically, this paper continues the ongoing discussion of what the relevant aggregated dimensions of NSD practices are. The detailed practices identified by interviewing 25 employees, all with key roles in relation to NSD in five large Scandinavian service firms, about their NSD practices, are clustered into three aggregated overarching dimensions of NSD practices: 1) identifying needs, 2) assur…

Characteristics of Intrapreneurs in Scale-Intensive Service Firms

This empirical paper explores the work of employees in charge of service innovation when firms develop and launch new scale-intensive services by addressing two research questions: i) How do employees responsible for service innovation work? and ii) what are the related managerial implications when developing and launching new scale-intensive services? To this end, 21 qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with employees in five large scale-intensive service firms. The findings suggest that the involvement of internal professionals is an asset when new scale-intensive services are developed, and that internal professionals act as intrapreneurs when they are involved in the developm…

Knowledge flow in Technological Business Incubators: Evidence from Australia and Israel

The study of the contribution of incubators to economic growth started to gain momentum in the 1980s, following the growth of the incubation phenomenon. While acknowledging the challenge of evaluating incubators׳ outcomes, we shift the focus from incubators׳ performance to their internal processes, in particular, the interrelationships through which the incubator stakeholders share knowledge. The literature suggests that small new ventures tend to fail because they lack managerial experience and ability to raise capital in an early stage. Incubators are expected to overcome these obstacles by offering experienced monitoring skills and by enhancing access to capital at a firm׳s early stage. …

Conceptualizing innovation capabilities: A contingency perspective

Empirical research has confirmed that a positive relationship exists between the implementation of innovation activities and the future performance of organizations. Firms utilize resources and capabilities to develop innovations in the form of new products, services or processes. Some firms prove to be better at reproducing innovation success than others, and the capacity to do so is referred to as innovation capability. However, the term innovation capability is ambiguously treated in extant literature. There are several different definitions of the concept and the distinction between innovation capabilities and other types of capabilities, such as dynamic capabilities, is neither explici…

Big Data and Data Ownership Rights: The Case of Car Insurance

Customers’ data points sources are growing, through the Internet of Things (IoT), telematics and interfacing with third parties’ platforms. Third parties provide either by-product data about their clients, or data that are generated for the specific task of a more accurate measurement of behaviour. One of the core building blocks in insurance is understanding risk – therefore, innovation around data points (sources and analytics) to proxy risk is the engine behind its digital transformation. While the value of data points is clear for the providers of insurance products and services, the customers have not only less control over their data, but also hardly benefit from the creation of thos…

Managing innovation of care services: An exploration of Norwegian municipalities

AbstractThe social impact of care services provided by the public sector is significant. Nevertheless, these services have received relatively little attention from prior innovation management practices research. This paper addresses this gap by raising the question: What characterises management-driven innovation processes in public organisations providing care services? The qualitative exploration of this question is based on in-depth interviews with key managers in three Norwegian municipalities, and in-depth observation of one ongoing innovation initiative in one municipality. Our findings supplement the findings of prior research by showing that different actors are involved in differe…

Ecosystem dynamics: exploring the interplay within fintech entrepreneurial ecosystems

AbstractScholars and practitioners continue to recognize the crucial role of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) in creating a conducive environment for productive entrepreneurship. Although EEs are fundamentally interaction systems of hierarchically independent yet mutually dependent actors, few studies have investigated how interactions among ecosystem actors drive the entrepreneurial process. Seeking to address this gap, this paper explores how ecosystem actor interactions influence new ventures in the financial technology (fintech) EE of Singapore. Guided by an EE framework and the use of an exploratory-abductive approach, empirical data from semi-structured interviews is collected and ana…

IMPLEMENTING A VALUE ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR SERVICE INNOVATION IDEAS

There has not been much discussion of how firms may assess the value of service innovation projects ex-ante in the extant research literature. This paper theoretically derives a value assessment tool for service innovation ideas called QSI (tool for pre-Qualification of Service Innovation projects). Thereafter QSI is implemented in three firms and it is explored to what degree the implementation improved managerial decision making on service innovation projects and investments. The findings indicated that the implementation of QSI had effects both in a portfolio management and a project management perspective. From a portfolio management point of view deployment of QSI improved the particip…

THE IMPACT OF VISUAL PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT ON DECISION-MAKING IN THE ENTREPRENEURIAL PROCESS

Effective decision-making is critical for entrepreneurial success due to constantly changing customer needs. Research has indicated that visual performance management approaches have the potential to improve decision-making during operations in established firms. However, how visual performance management may affect decision-making during the entrepreneurial process has not yet been adequately addressed in the extant research literature. To contribute in filling this knowledge gap, a visual performance management tool called Obeya was adapted and utilised during an entrepreneurial process, and its impact on decision-making during the process was qualitatively explored. The findings indicat…

Innovation Capabilities: Affirming an Oxymoron? From the Editors

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Innovation capabilities: What are their characteristics and how can they be conceptualized?

Purpose – It has been argued that firms may utilize their resources and capabilities through the development of innovations in the form of new products, services or processes, and empirical research has confirmed that there is a positive relationship between the implementation of innovation activities and future performance of firms. Some firms prove to be better at reproducing innovation success than other firms, and the capacity to do so can be framed as an innovation capability. However, the term innovation capability is ambiguously treated in extant literature. There exist several different definitions of the concept and the distinction between innovation capabilities and other types of…

Facilitating innovation in FinTech: a review and research agenda

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to carry out content analyses on the existing literature to investigate the knowledge state of innovation facilitators adopted to promote financial innovation. In total, 56 papers were analysed using the NVivo software package. Three categories of innovation facilitators emerged from the literature capturing the perspective of regulators, incumbents and new entrants. Each identified instrument is defined and its processes and implications described. Many initiatives were led by regulators, revealing a regulatory strategy change from risk-based to opportunity-based regulation, with regulatory sandboxes being the most commonly adopted instrument. Incumbent…

THE FIRM-LEVEL EFFECTS OF SERVICE INNOVATION: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Despite the importance of service innovation, its effects have been given relatively little explicit attention in the extant literature. Instead, researchers often implicitly assume that firm-level service innovation activities result in a number of positive financial and other effects. This paper conducts a systematic review of literature on the firm-level effects of service innovation and attempts to identify and categorize the effects suggested in the literature. The review reveals a considerable number of potential firm-level service innovation effects that have been discussed in extant research. We suggest that they may be divided into five effect categories: (1) business process effec…

Product-Service Systems in the Digital Era: Deconstructing Servitisation Business Model Typologies

The identification of business model typologies of servitised firms is part of a long research tradition. However, the relevance of many existing typologies in the contemporary context, in which digitalisation is central to business model innovation, may be questioned. Thus, in this chapter, we revisit the existing literature and continue the conceptual discussion about the categorisation of product-service system business models. We propose a conceptual product-service system business model framework with three independent continuums: the degrees of ownership retention, results-orientedness and smartness. Based on this framework, we derive a new product-service system business model typolo…

Open Innovation or Innovation in the Open? An Exploration of the Strategy–Innovation Link in Five Scale-Intensive Services

This chapter explores the strategy–innovation link in open service innovations. The increased attention to the role of the firm's external environment on innovation has important implications for strategy. However, our literature review reveals that the strategy–innovation link is ambiguously treated in extant theory, especially with respect to open- and service-innovations. Therefore, we inductively explore innovation practices in five large scale-intensive service firms to establish the link between their strategy and open innovation practices. To our surprise, we find that explicit innovation strategies lack in all five firms. The findings also suggest that the logic of innovation and st…

Transitioning to Platform-based Services and Business Models in a B2B Environment

Given the considerable success of companies such as Apple, Amazon or Airbnb, the term platform is on everyone’s lips today. Accordingly, platforms have long since also found their way into service science. However, mastering the transition from established product-sales-based offerings to platform-based services and business models comes with a multitude of challenges. In a B2B context, incumbent companies need to carefully evaluate how they can benefit from the establishment of platforms, especially in light of the effects on their existing business models and ties to other actors. Hence, we invited scholars with different backgrounds to provide viewpoints on the opportunities and challeng…

Coopetitive tensions across project phases: A paradox perspective

Coopetition is a paradoxical phenomenon that encapsulates the dynamic interplay between cooperation and competition. Management of tensions, inherent in coopetitive relationships, is a success factor for this type of collaboration. Previous research has extensively examined management of tensions in the implementation phase of coopetitive innovation projects but has paid little attention to the dynamics of these tensions across different project phases. This gap is disconcerting since the innovation management literature recognizes the fuzziness and uncertainty of the pre-project phase as critical to the continuity of an innovation project. We argue that differences between project phases a…

Exploring a new incubation model for FinTechs: Regulatory sandboxes

Research on incubation models indicates that incubators and accelerators are crucial catalysts for the development of start-ups. To facilitate start-ups in financial markets, several regulatory authorities have adopted a new incubation model called a ‘regulatory sandbox’. Regulatory sandboxes enable eligible applicants to test their technology-enabled financial solutions for a certain period of time (subject to conditions the regulator imposes). As such, these instruments allow innovation while preventing severe instability in financial markets caused by systemic risk. Despite their importance, management research has devoted little attention to studying how sandboxes operate as a new incub…

Open Service Innovation: The Case of Tourism Firms in Scandinavia

Most empirical research investigating open innovation has focused on the development of new physical products in manufacturing industries, whereas open service innovation has not been researched correspondingly. Services have some characteristics that distinguish them from physical products, which may affect the types of open innovation practice utilised during service innovation processes. Tourism services comprise a subset of services that is particularly distant from tangible products. Therefore, the exploration of how tourism firms utilise different types of open innovation practice offers a valuable opportunity to learn about the nature of open service innovation practices. Thus, this …

Effekter ved innføring av fjernstyring for Agder Energi Produksjon AS sine kraftstasjoner i Arendalsvassdraget

Masteroppgave i informasjons- og kommunikasjonsteknologi 2003 - Høgskolen i Agder, Grimstad Problemstillingen denne rapporten besvarer er: ”Kartlegg, med utgangspunkt i et teoretisk rammeverk, hvilke effekter innføring av fjernstyrings- og fjernovervåkningsteknologi for kraftstasjonene i Arendalsvassdraget vil få eller kunne få for organisasjonen Agder Energi Produksjon AS.” I denne rapporten bygges det opp en evalueringsmetode som egner seg for å løse den aktuelle problemstillingen. Denne skreddersydde evalueringsmetoden baserer seg i hovedsak på de eksisterende evalueringsmetodene Information Economics (IE) og Investment Appraisal (IA). Evalueringsmetoden bruker teknikkene i IA for å klar…

Exploring New Service Portfolio Management

Most research on the management of innovation portfolios has focused on new product portfolios, whereas the management of new service portfolios has not been researched correspondingly. This paper addresses this literature gap by exploring portfolio management of New Service Development (NSD) activities empirically. The paper applies a qualitative research design, where data was collected in 52 in-depth interviews with managers and employees involved with NSD. The study finds that the portfolio management activities and processes were carried out in parallel with the NSD process, and that the most important stakeholders in the NSD portfolio management organization were top managers not inv…

SERVICE-ORIENTED BUSINESS MODELS IN MANUFACTURING IN THE DIGITAL ERA: TOWARD A NEW TAXONOMY

A stream of servitisation research has focused on the construction of taxonomies and typologies of product–service system business models (BMs). However, their relevance in the context of increased utilisation of digital technologies may be questioned. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to empirically revisit the existing product–service system BM taxonomies to explore the following research question: How can the BMs of servitised manufacturing firms be categorised in the digital era? The question is addressed through an embedded case study of five servitised firms. We found that the firms’ BMs varied with regard to the degree of the suppliers’ ownership of delivered products, degree of sma…

Innovation practices in cultural organisations: Implications for innovation policy

This paper explores the innovation practices in a distinctive and vital part of the growing tourism industry, that of cultural organisations. These organisations have received limited attention from previous in-depth qualitative research on innovation practices. The investigation in this paper is based on in-depth interviews with key-employees in 27 cultural organisations. The findings suggest that the innovation practices when cultural organisations carry out incremental and liminal innovation activities differ from the practices used during more radical innovation activities. Sources of incremental and liminal innovations are often found to be stakeholders external to the organisation, su…

Digital Transformation through Collaborative Platformization: A Study of Incumbent-Entrepreneur Relations

Innovation Management Practices in Production-Intensive Service Firms

Postprint version of the article. This paper posits that innovation management practices are contingent upon the type of industry, and examines the innovation management practices in a distinctive set of service firms: production-intensive service firms. Production-intensive services are standardised services produced at a large scale. These services have received little attention from prior comprehensive qualitative innovation management practices research. The examination in this paper is based on in-depth interviews with 21 key-employees in five large Scandinavian production-intensive service firms. The results revealed a number of innovation management practices specific to production-i…

The impact of service innovation on firm-level financial performance

This article empirically investigates if firms focusing on service innovation perform better financially than firms not focusing on service innovation. Analysis of the financial performance of 3575 Norwegian firms in the manufacturing industries supports the proposition that firms focusing on service innovation have significantly higher growth of operating results than firms not focusing on service innovation. However, this proposition is not supported in a corresponding analysis of 1132 Norwegian firms in the service industries. We elaborate on these results by investigating a variety of performance measures and by comparing the effects of service innovation between manufacturing and servi…

Service Innovation Methodologies II : How can new product development methodologies be applied to service innovation and new service development? : Report no 2 from the TIPVIS-project

This report presents various methodologies used in new product development and product innovation and discusses the relevance of these methodologies for service development and service innovation. The service innovation relevance for all of the methodologies presented is evaluated along several service specific dimensions, like intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity, perishability, information intensity, and co-creation. The methodologies discussed are mainly collected from the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) glossary. The main conclusions of the report are that several methodologies have been identified that may be applied to service innovation with no or minor …

Exploring how social interactions influence regulators and innovators: The case of regulatory sandboxes

Like incubators, regulatory sandboxes constitute a prominent mechanism to enable entrepreneurial activities that guide financial technology (FinTech) firms through regulatory frameworks in the financial industry. Because they are new, there is a lack of research on regulatory sandboxes; most studies have investigated legal aspects while overlooking the management perspective. To address this gap, this paper builds on incubation research studies to explore how social interactions within regulatory sandboxes influence the practices of regulators and regulatees, using social capital theory. An exploratory-abductive approach is adopted, using data collected from 16 semi-structured interviews. T…

Digital Servitization: Strategies for Handling Customization and Customer Interaction

This conceptual chapter utilizes extant servitization and digitalization theorization and discusses the impact of digital servitization on customization/standardization and customer interaction. The study argues that the transformation toward digital servitization is complex and goes far beyond the technological dimension. The study contributes to the digital servitization literature by demonstrating that industrial services shift from customized and co-created to mainly standardized-provided and informating when they are digitalized. These insights can assist managers of servitized manufacturing firms who wish to utilize digital technologies in their service provision.