A Proposal for a Standard With Innovation Management System

Yvonne Lagrosen and Stefan Lagrosen
Regarding positioning, they are uncertain of how far they should take it and in many ways the
companies are quite similar. The positions they have taken may be related to Lagrosen
andLagrosen’s (2007) dimensions of mental change, physical change and pleasure with each
company having a slightly different focus regarding the dimensions. Overall, the dimension of
pleasure seems, however, to be most emphasised.
The abstract nature of the services in the industry highlights the value of organisational learning. The
services are often based on tacit knowledge (Polanyi, 1967) and so methods for making it more
explicit should be useful (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Organisational learning may be a way of
stimulating more innovation in the industry – an innovation that goes beyond branding and creates
real differences. The network that the companies are engaged in has certain characteristics of a
learning network (Garcia, 2006).
A learning network could allow the participating companies to engage in more in-depth marketing
research in order to specify the dimensions of quality that apply in this specific industry. The
dimensions that Lagrosen and Lagrosen (2007) suggest are of a general nature on a high level of
abstraction. As such they are valuable for the scientific understanding of customer behaviour in the
health and fitness industry. Nevertheless, for individual companies as well as for networks of
companies, more concrete and detailed knowledge of the customers’ quality preferences are needed.
Thus through the use of qualitative methods like focus group interviews in connection with quantitative
questionnaires, they could examine the quality influence of actual treatments, exercises, facilities,
equipment etc.
8. Conclusions
The purpose of the paper was to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial learning, innovation
and quality management in the wellness industry. The study has shown that innovation is tightly
connected to branding in this sector. Innovation often more concerns image of firms and products
than concrete radical changes. Quality management is carried out rather traditionally. The relationship
between quality management and innovation is thus rather weak. A possibility to overcome this
weakness may lie in entrepreneurial learning and the association that the companies are active in
might have the potential of constituting a network for learning. If so, this could provide an arena for
integrating quality management and innovation. Further research into such networks should be
valuable. This research could address questions regarding the possibility of quality management
evolving into incorporating more of quality development. Moreover, the role of learning from others
concerning quality development in networks of collaborating companies could be a valuable part of
this research.
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