Service Innovation from the Frontlines in Customer-Centric Organizations

Abstract

Meta-analyses of the literature on service innovation, defined as the introduction of new or enhanced offerings that increase customer value (Ordanini & Parasuraman 2011; Dotzel, Shankar, & Berry 2013), show two consistent themes despite the significant heterogeneity of findings across studies (Saeed et al. 2015; Storey et al. 2016). First, there is compelling evidence that service innovation, just like product innovation, contributes to firm performance (Saeed et al. 2015; Calantone, Harmancioglu, & Droge 2010; Rubera & Kirca 2012). Second, unlike for product innovation, frontline involvement is among the “top-10” antecedents of commercial success from service innovation and customer involv..