Abstract
This chapter examines practices of involving customers in the service innovation process. Even though customer-centric views are increasingly gaining ground in the literature, there is not much research into the organisation of innovation processes in which customers actually participate. In this chapter we describe an action-research project where we, together with a case company, developed and tested several methods for customer participation. The company is a medium-sized Finnish insurance company which has developed several incremental service innovations during recent years. As the next step it wanted to adopt a systematic, genuinely customer-oriented innovation model.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abramovici M, Bansel-Charensol L (2004) How to take customers into consideration in service innovation projects. Serv Ind J 24(1):56–78
Alam I, Perry C (2002) A customer-oriented new service development process. J Serv Mark 16(6):515–534
Ansoff I (1984) Implanting strategic management. Prentice Hall International, London
Bitner MJ, Ostrom AL, Morgan FN (2008) Service blueprinting. A practical technique for service innovation. Calif Manage Rev 50(3):66–94
Chesbrough HW (2004) Managing open innovation. Research-Technology Manage 47(1):23–26
Coghlan D, Brannick T (2005) Doing action research in your own organization. 2nd ed. Sage, London
Cooper RG, De Brentani U (1991) New industrial financial services. What distinguishes winners. J Prod Innov Manage 8(2):75–90
den Hertog P (2002) Co-producers of innovation: On the role of knowledge-intensive business services in innovation. In: Gadrey J, Gallouj F (eds) Productivity, innovation and knowledge in services: New economic and socio-economic approaches. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham
Eden C, Huxham C (1996) Action research for management research. Br J Manage 7:75–86
Eerola A, Holst-Joergensen B (2002) Technology foresight in the Nordic countries: A report to Nordic Industrial Fund. Center for Innovation & Commercial Development Risoe Natl Lab, Roskilde
Eisenhardt K, Tabrizi B (1995) Accelerating adaptive processes. Product innovation in the global computer industry. Admin Sci Quart 40(1):84–110
Engvall M, Magnusson P, Marshall C, Olin, T, Sandberg, R (2001) Creative approaches to development. Exploring alternatives to sequential stage-gate models. http://www.fenix.chalmers.se
Evered R, Louis MR (1981) Alternative perspectives in the organizational sciences. Inquiry from the inside and inquiry from the outside. Acad Manage Rev 6(3):385–393
Gallouj F, Weinstein O (1997) Innovation in services. Res Policy 26(4/5):537–556
Godet M (1994) From anticipation to action. A handbook of strategic prospective. UNESCO Publishing, Paris
Hoover WE, Eloranta E, Holmström J, Huttunen K (2001) Managing the demand-supply chain. Value innovations for customer satisfaction. Wiley, New York
Johansson AW, Lindhult E (2008) Emancipation or workability? Critical versus pragmatic scientific orientation in action research. Action Res 6(1):95–115
Kim WC, Mauborgne R (1999) Strategy, value innovation, and the knowledge economy. Sloan Manage Rev 40(3):41–54
Miles I (1999) Services in National Innovation Systems: From traditional services to knowledge intensive business services. In: Schienstock G, Kuusi O (eds) Transformation towards a learning economy. The Finnish National Fund for Research & Development—Sitra, Report no. 213, Helsinki
Moorman C, Miner AS (1998) The convergence of planning and execution. Improvisation in new product development. J Mark 62(3):1–20
Moreno JL, Borgatta EF (1951) An experiment with sociodrama and sociometry in industry. Sociometry 14(1):71–104
Prahalad CK, Ramaswamy V (2004) Co-creation experiences. The next practice in value creation. J Interacti Mark 18(3):5–13
Reason P, Bradbury H (2001) The handbook of action research. Sage, London
Shostack GL (1982) How to design a service. Eur J Mark 16(1):49–62
Sundbo J (2008) Customer-based innovation of knowledge e-services: The importance of after-innovation. Int J Serv Technol Manage 9(3–4):218–233
Sundbo J, Gallouj F (2000) Innovation as a loosely coupled system in services. In: Metcalfe JS, Miles I (eds) Innovation systems in the service economy. Measurement and case study analysis. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston
Toivonen M (2004) Foresight in services: Possibilities and special challenges. Serv Ind J 24(1):79–98
Toivonen M (2010) Different types of innovation processes in services and their organisational implications. In: Gallouj F, Djellal F. (eds) The handbook of innovation and services. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham
Torrance EP (1975) Sociodrama as a creative problem-solving approach to studying the future. J Creat Behav 9(3):182–195
Tuomi I (2002) Networks of innovation: Change and meaning in the age of the Internet. Oxford University Press, Oxford
von Hippel E (1988) The sources of innovation. Oxford University Press, New York
Wikström S (1995) The customer as co-producer. Eur J Mark, 30(4):6–19
Yin RK (1994) Case study Research: Design and methods. Sage, Thousand Oaks
Zeithaml VA, Bolton RN, Deighton J, Keiningham TL, Lemon KN, Petersen JA (2006) Forward looking focus. Can firms have adaptive foresight? J Serv Res 9(2):168–183
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Toivonen, M., Holopainen, M., Tuominen, T. (2012). Involving Customers in the Service Innovation Process. In: Macaulay, L., Miles, I., Wilby, J., Tan, Y., Zhao, L., Theodoulidis, B. (eds) Case Studies in Service Innovation. Service Science: Research and Innovations in the Service Economy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1972-3_32
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1972-3_32
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-1971-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-1972-3
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)