Exploring Modes of Service Innovation in Manufacturing Firms

Paper in proceeding, 2010

Manufacturing companies that differentiate their offerings with new services need to combine both product and service innovation. The purpose of our research is to understand how service development processes in manufacturing companies is influenced by (1) the choice of separation or integration of service development and (2) the modes of innovation. The results show that service development processes are often more structured if the service is developed separately. Furthermore, service innovations often follow another sequence of innovation modes than product innovations. Since different innovation modes benefit from varying degree of structure in the development process, integrated development of products and services could prove challenging.