Innovation in Services - Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Innovation in Services
SYNTHESIS (OR INTEGRATIVE APPROACHES): TOWARDS A CONSENSUS
The ‘distinction’ line of research stirred up debate amongst researchers studying
innovation in services. In essence, there is considerable agreement that the
concept of innovation should be extended to include non-technological forms of
change, but concern that the concept is being stretched too far, to include many
ad hoc, non-reproducible and easily reversible changes that may even have
been accidental. Some researchers argue that the concept of innovation should
involve at least an element of technological change and should not be extended
to all organisational change (Drejer, 2004), as in the long-run it is primarily
technological change that drives increases in productivity.
Figure 2.2: Dialogic’s Four Dimensional Model of Innovation in
Services
characteristics of existing
and competing services
New Service
Concept
(Dimension 1)
Source: Den Hertog (2000, 495)
organisational
capabilities
marketing and distribution
capabilities
Technological
Options
(Dimension 4)
New Service
Delivery System
(Dimension 3)
capabilities, skills and attitude of existing
and competing service workers
New Client
Interface
(Dimension 2)
human resource
capabilities
A variety of viewpoints persist, but suffice to say that researchers studying
innovation in services increasingly recognise the importance of both
technological and organisational forms of innovation, and indeed the
interactions and complementarities between these. One such model is that
offered by the Dialogic consultancy, which highlights four dimensions of
innovation, where only one of these dimensions is technological (Figure 2.2).
The interactions between technological and non-technological change are also
highlighted. We will explore these issues further in the empirical section of this
paper (Section 2.4).
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characteristics of actual
and potential clients