Service Innovation A Roadmap for Practitioners

The service sector is the most important and fastest growing business sector of developed countries nowadays. Existing literature outlines important topics for future research in the field of service innovation. However, a lack of practical implications exists. Based on a research portfolio, classifying theoretical research questions in the field of service innovation, a roadmap for practitioners is developed. For this purpose, existing theoretical insights, service innovation driving forces, and key technology enablers are investigated. The roadmap depicts six areas that have to be considered by companies to cope with the on-going changes in the service sector and that have to be targeted within companies to exploit existing and emerging potentials for service innovations. Among these areas are the companies’ organization and the evaluation of ideas and innovations. Due to the fact that quickly evolving trends need to be addressed promptly with the right solution, the latter area will clearly play a vital role in the future. In order to be innovative, companies have to spend their efforts wisely, not wasting energy in insufficient service innovation projects.