Services Innovation in Ireland - Options for ... - Europe INNOVA

attention. In the context of the case studies, sectoral networks (both national and international)
were identified as important mechanisms to share knowledge, particularly amongst non-competitors.
Again, the enabling approach was felt to be most appropriate.
R&D was also highlighted in the case studies. Here, a number of companies in sectors such as IT
and traded e-learning services were already active in systematic R&D. For most of the case study
companies, however, R&D was viewed as a largely alien concept. For some companies, this was an
issue of better educating service companies on the availability of such forms of support and its
applicability and availability for service innovation projects. For others, however, it was viewed as
suggesting the need for more specific service research projects, with a sectoral focus.
Other examples of support were identified by single companies and are not discussed in detail
here due to lack of corresponding evidence. For example suggestions focusing on the role and
contribution of the education sector to services innovation, including the role of schools in raising a
culture of innovation from a young age were made. While this is not a specific services innovation
issue, the notion that a more effective culture of innovation can benefit from a focus on issues
such as flexibility and innovativeness at an early stages of education. At the same time co-operative
placements between universities and enterprises were also noted as a means of facilitating more
relevant curriculum developments to the needs of the service sector.
These findings do not provide a strongly or coherently argued case. This could be taken to imply
that such companies do not have a strong need for services innovation supports, as may indeed be
the case for the larger companies studied, or it may correspond to the services innovation literature
which stresses that the dominant language of innovation revolves around technological concepts
such as R&D and may therefore be fundamentally incompatible with discussion around the needs of
services innovation.
4.6 Summary
The main evidence base for service innovation activity in Ireland is currently provided by the CIS 75 .
Data from the most recent published CIS3 (2003) suggests that higher levels of innovation are found
in manufacturing, compared to the services sector. The case studies, however, do not paint a picture
of a laggard sector; indeed they suggest that that service companies in Ireland are evolving and
innovating on a constant basis, in each of the different sectors examined. Such innovation, however,
with the exception of IT based service sectors, does not necessarily follow traditional innovation
metrics such as R&D. Instead, the framework that was outlined in Chapter 2 helps to reveal a rich
pattern of innovation activity in relation to business models, customer interfaces and new services.
In relation to the innovation models, while examples were found of each model, the case studies
suggest that relatively few companies utilise a fast track approach, which is viewed as overly risky,
instead preferring a combined approach built on systematic service development, complemented by
more incremental changes once implemented.
The case studies also revealed different organisational models of innovation. In this respect the
main approach in evidence was one based on innovation champions. This was not necessarily a
formalised approach based on job titles and so on. In most cases champions were self selected from
senior management teams. More formal approaches were, however, in evidence particularly in larger
companies and software driven sectors, where organised innovation teams were in evidence – often
coalescing around a particular project requirement. These relatively ‘elite’ approaches to innovation
did, however, contrast with more ‘democratic’ approaches based around empowerment of the entire
workforce that was evident in a small number of case studies.
75 Other surveys such as the annual Forfás BERD survey provide a useful complement, but does not provide a detailed breakdown of the
service sector.
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