A service innovation always includes replicable elements that can be identified and systematically reproduced in other cases or environments.
Many literatures on what makes for successful innovations of this kind comes from the New Service Development research field (e.g. Johne and Storey, 1998;[2] Nijssen et al., 2006[3]).
Additionally, firms cooperate with both horizontal (e.g., competitors) and vertical (e.g., suppliers) business partners in order to develop relevant service innovations.
For instance: An elaboration of this model to suggest six dimensions of innovation was developed in the course of work on creative sectors, by Green, Miles and Rutter.
In recent years policy makers have begun to consider the potential for promoting services innovation as part of their economic development strategies.
Such consideration has, in part, been driven by the growing contribution that services activities make to national and regional economies.
It also reflects the emerging recognition that traditional policy measures such as R&D grants and technology transfer supports have been developed from a manufacturing perspective of the innovation process.
The European Commission and the OECD has been particularly active in seeking to generate reflection on services innovation and its policy implications.
Finland is an exception, where knowledge intensive business services have been a focus of much regional work (esp.
This has seen TEKES – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation – launch the SERVE initiative, designed to support ‘Finnish companies and research organizations in the development of innovative service concepts that can be reproduced or replicated and where some technology or systematic method is applied.’a Germany has also undertaken initiatives for services R&D.
[CM International] has recently published a European survey on services innovation and regional policy responses.
The results of this suggest that very few regions in France, the UK and Ireland have an explicit focus on services and innovation.