Customer role in service production and innovation – looking for directions for future research
Year: 2008
Type: other
Abstract: Preface
Intensive research on service innovation is a relatively recent phenomenon. Hence, it is natural that
much effort has been devoted to identifying general characteristics of service innovation. A key
feature has been argued to be the role of customers as an important resource in service
development.
This document consists of two working papers that review and analyse customer – service provider
interaction in service production, and in service innovation activities. The focus of the analysis is on
business customers. As the number of studies in the field has been rapidly growing, knowledge of
customer potential and limitations in service innovation is also increasing. However, literature in
the field remains fragmented.
The purpose of the review is to organise existing research findings and point out key directions for
future research efforts. In other words, to examine the current knowledge about customer roles in
service innovation, and the existing knowledge gaps that would deserve more attention. The review
identifies key themes and research findings, as well as provides a conceptual framework that
integrates factors (and suggests interdependences) that seem to influence customer role in service
innovation.
The first one of the papers is titled “Customer roles in service production – implications for
involving the customer in service innovation” (Arja Kuusisto). It first delineates customer
participation in service production. Three distinct customer roles are identified: consuming, coperforming,
and co-creating a service. These customer roles are then analysed in terms of their
implications for customer motivation and capabilities to become involved in service innovation.
Overall, the analysis shows that there is a need to take into account the specific innovation context:
customer motivation and capabilities to contribute to innovation activities depend on the specific
innovation target and resources of the customer as well the service provider.
The second paper, “Customer interaction in service innovations – A review of literature” (Seliina
Paallysaho), identifies key themes that can be used to structure discussion and findings in the field.
These include, customer as a resource and as a co-producer in service development, collaboration
patterns between customer and service provider, customer input in various types of innovations and
at various stages of the innovation process, selecting and motivating customers, and, the pros and
cons of customer input in service innovation activities. A key finding of the review is that despite
the growing number of studies, research results yield only very few generalisations. This is due to
the heterogeneity in questions asked, concepts used, and the nature of service activities examined
which make it difficult to compare results of one study with another.
The review and analysis conducted in the two working papers suggest the following guidelines for
future studies on customer role in service innovation:
1. The type of the analysed service is important and it needs to be clearly identified. It is not a new
observation that service activities are heterogeneous. However, it seems that what we know about
customer involvement in service innovation does not adequately reflect this heterogeneity, but is
biased towards what we know about services produced in intensive, person-to-person interactions.
Hence, more research is needed to examine the variety of services. Further, there should be more
studies that examine different types of services in one study (or with the same conceptual
framework and research questions) to enhance comparability of findings.
3
2. There is a need to specify the target (or key dimension) of innovation. The following dimensions
of service innovation are often identified: new or significantly improved service, process of
production or delivery, organisational method, and marketing practice. However, this specific target
of innovation has not been systematically looked into in studies focusing on customer involvement
in service innovation. It is highly plausible that customer roles and potential in service innovation
are closely linked to the type of service innovation in question.
3. There is a need for more studies on how to organise and motivate customer interaction in service
development. Research on the following types of questions should contribute to innovation
management practices: When should customer interaction in a service development project be
separately governed and organised? How can the firms – service providers and customers – make
use of formal and informal protection methods in service co-development projects? As the service
provider and the customer may have different motivations for service development, would it be
possible to create new types of ‘win-win’ incentives for co-operation in innovation activities? What
types of incentives are currently in use for internal employees and for the customer organisation’s
employees, and how they are perceived?
4. What is the role of customers when the service provider aims to proactively anticipate or even
influence future customer needs?
It is hoped that the following two research papers presented here can be valuable for readers in two
ways: that they help organise current knowledge on customer role in service innovation and provide
plentiful references in the field, as well as give rise to new relevant research questions.
Source: LUTPub (LUT University)
Authors: Kuusisto, Arja, Päällysaho, Seliina
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2292908860