This executive briefing authored by Ivanka Visnjic,
Taija Turunen and Andy Neely from the Cambridge Service
Alliance, looks at the process of service innovation in
an attempt to improve the way that service and
product-service providers develop new services. The
research shows that conventional product-oriented
thinking about the innovation process does not
automatically translate to a services context. The
innovation process in relational service provision is
very different from that in a more transactional
business. The value chain of product companies, for
example, is comparatively linear and sequential.
Relational services, on the other hand, start with the
initial design, but exploration and learning central to
the innovation process takes place at the same time as
the production and use of the initial service. New
service development is, therefore, simultaneous to its
production and use, and co-created with the client. pdf
