A practical perspective on the classification of service innovations

Purpose - This paper aims to link academic classifications of service innovation with practical activities by firms to detail the essence of service innovation. Design/methodology/approach - This research employs both qualitative and quantitative analyses. The qualitative study features interviews with senior managers from 590 companies, covering nine industries in Taiwan, to gather practitioners' perspectives on service innovation. A content analysis details specific forms of service innovation. The quantitative study provides a homogeneity test and two-sample proportions test to examine differences in service innovation perspectives/activities across organizational characteristics. Findings - The interview data link three types of service innovations to 11 associated elements and 25 labels, derived from 659 potential service innovation incidents (550 new service concepts, 82 new service processes, and 27 new service business models). This study also shows that elements of service innovations vary by company size, service innovation experience, and industry life cycle. Practical implications - The three types of service innovations enable businesses to benchmark and modify their current service innovation activities. Service managers can use the results of this study to develop their own service innovation strategies and concrete action plans. Originality/value - This pioneering study links the viewpoints of academics with practical service innovation activities and empirically shows that service innovation is dissimilar, depending on various organization characteristics.