Manchester Institute of Innovation Research ANNUAL REPORT 

Theme 2: Innovation and services
(lead: Ian Miles)
Understanding innovation in service organisations, and service innovation – these are two
distinct things - is a matter of growing practical importance and scholarly significance.
MIoIR researchers have pioneered these areas of research, and continue to play a leading
role in them. In 2011 the group lost Jeremy Howells, who left for a position at the
University of Southampton; but we are happy to welcome the return of Bruce Tether, after
a spell at Imperial College. At Imperial, Bruce as been working on topics of design services
and service design, that are of considerable interest to MIoIR, and also on the process of
“servicisation” or “servitisation” (which we have also drawn attention to, and studied in
some recent analyses). Bruce remains part of the UK~IRC, a research centre involving
Cambridge University and Imperial College London, within which he leads the project on
‘services innovation and innovative performance at the sector level’. This project involves
work at the micro, meso and macro levels, and in particular has involved the development
of panel datasets on the evolution of Knowledge-Intensive, and Professional Business
Service Firms, and the determinants of performance amongst these firms.
In addition to research studies, we are supporting MSc and PhD research on them. A great
deal of MIoIR work, though featuring under different headings and themes, actually
concerns service activities, and the team also plays a substantial role in, and cooperates
with researchers from other parts of, MBS' Manchester Centre for Service Research, with
whom several joint publications (including a journal special issue and a book) have been
produced in 2011.
Whereas in 2010, MIoIR researchers were prominent in preparing overviews of the service
innovation field through chapters contributed to Handbooks and related collections, in
2011 books and journal articles were more prominent. The books include a collection of
case studies derived from a successful conference hosted in Manchester and a set of
studies focusing on Knowledge-Intensive Service Activities (KISA - see the box). Several
journal articles also concern KISA, Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) and Service
Systems (KISS). One particular set of issues, which Massini and Miozzo especially examine,
concerns outsourcing, offshoring, and related issues of management and human resources.
A relative newcomer to the group, Dr Panos Desyllas, has a background that includes
research on new business models adopted by services that are making use of the huge
information resources generated through new technologies (in particular, insurance
companies employing GPS records). He has commenced an ESRC project (with Professors
Miozzo and Miles) which will further explore the topic of innovation and intellectual
property protection in KIBS.
Major journals in which this theme published in 2011 include Group & Organization
Management (on off-shoring), New Technology, Work and Employment (on IT services),
International Journal of Services Technology and Management (knowledge intensive
service systems), Technovation (Services in manufacturing firms), Industrial and Corporate ,
Change (outsourcing in service firms), and book chapters with major publishers. In addition,
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