Big Data, Big Insights? Advancing Service Innovation and Design with Machine Learning

Purpose: The study aims to determine the evolution of research production in the field of “Service Innovation” between 1970 and 2020. This paper analysed the publications' characteristics in connection with the innovation in service. The focus of academic research on the subject of “Service Innovation” has been identified using bibliometric analysis. Data Source: The investigations were done in the Scopus database to determine the main topics, authors, fields, types, sources, titles, publishing years, institutions, countries and their languages. Method: The research articles related to service innovation were evaluated by software’s MS Excel and VOSviewer. The trend in publications has been analysed using the Scopus database from 1970 to 2020. There were 3,915 reported items collected and analysed. Authors, Co-authorship and analysis of co-occurrence were carried out. Findings: The results of the co-authorship and co-occurrence analyses show that the UK and the US lead the publications on service innovation. Also, the keywords service innovation, innovation, services, value co-creation, open innovation, service design, new service development, and business model innovation were found to be most prominent in the literature. “Service Innovation” research witnessed the emerging use of the Kano model. The current analysis discovered a publication tendency that was increasing and will continue to increase in the future. The top author of this study is Lars Witell, affiliated with Linkopings Universitet, Linkoping, Sweden, and the top second author of the study, Faiz Gallouj, is affiliated with the University of Lille, Lille, France. Karlstads Universitet, Karlsland, Sweden and Aalto University, Espoo, Finland took first and second places respectively producing articles on service innovation. Moreover, funding on service innovation research is also limited.

The concept of service has gone through both evolutionary and revolutionary changes, but this has had little effect on the way reviews portray service innovation research. Our paper is the first to investigate whether and how different conceptualizations of service influence the formation of perspectives on studying and practicing service innovation. Combining an exploratory content analysis with a thorough examination of 886 articles on service innovation published from 1981 to 2019, we suggest a novel integrative framework for the multiple perspectives on service innovation. We outline new service development, service engineering, service infusion, service design, service reconfiguration and service integration as autonomous, yet interconnected, perspectives, each with its own research focus, logic and vocabulary. This integrative framework can assist with defining research questions and designing innovation studies, as well as selecting approaches to managing innovation. We also argue that the main obstacles to the progress of service innovation research are lexical cross‐contamination, parallelism in approaches, the gravity of the new service development perspective and the legacy of new product development. To overcome these challenges, we encourage a more distinct pluralism of perspectives and demonstrate possibilities for meaningful conversations across them.

In order to better understand and grasp the progress of service design research at home and abroad, we analyzed the distribution of related literature output, research hotspots, basic knowledge and frontier trends with the help of CNKI database and Web of Science database as domestic and international data sources, combined with literature clustering and bibliometric methods. The results show that both domestic and foreign service design research is on the rise, and the research hotspots and citation frequencies are higher in foreign countries than in China. Foreign research hotspots mainly shift from quality, model, design, and management to science, technology, and service system, and focus on user needs and experience, and design thinking becomes a new research focus and continues to this day; while domestic research is mainly oriented to social innovation, public culture and technology-driven service design.

This paper aims to provide an understanding of innovative service design processes by comparing service design logic with the entrepreneurial logics of causation, effectuation and bricolage (CEB). The paper draws upon empirical data to show how both service design logic and entrepreneurship logics may help us to create more innovative service design outcomes. In this process, we hope to understand how the creation of value enters into the service innovation process through co-creation between customers, organisations, ecosystem members and society. Data used within this paper includes deep qualitative interviews with key stakeholders, written documents and participative observation. From our analysis, we develop a model of service innovation design that shows how design logics and entrepreneurial logics influence the development of new and innovative services.

Innovation processes in services remain under-researched, but recently large-scale surveys have been conducted which allow for a more systematic appraisal of the level and scope of innovation in services. To date, much of the literature on innovation in services focuses on the adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Innovation in services, and services innovation, should, however, be understood in broader terms, and this understanding should extend to non-technological innovation. This paper presents evidence from a recent large-scale survey of innovation amongst German commercial service firms. It shows that services are much more active with respect to innovation than is widely thought. They are innovative in terms of being producers of service and process innovations. From our broader perspective, we examine the pattern of innovation as it relates to the standardisation-particularisation of service products, across a range of service sectors and across firms of various sizes. The production of bespoke or customised services shaped by client inputs has long been considered a defining characteristic of many services, and one that has affected their innovation potential. The present analysis reveals a pattern of diversity in behaviour, which reflects the diversity amongst service firms, and demonstrates the need for more subtle and differentiated analyses of services and services innovation.

In recent years, a substantial body of literature has emerged due to the widespread application of Co-design in Service Design Research (hereafter referred to as Co-SDR). However, there is currently no comprehensive literature review on Co-SDR. To further promote the development of service design and Co-design as a tool for innovation, it is crucial to comprehensively summarize and analyse the relevant research, particularly its current state over the past five years. Furthermore, the existing research literature in the field of Co-SDR is extensive, spanning across diverse disciplines and fields of knowledge, and the research content and perspectives are complex. As such, traditional methods of literature review may not be adequate in capturing the current research hotspots and development dynamics. The search strategy of using TS= ((co-design OR collaborative design) AND (service design)) in the Web of Science (WOS) core database was adopted in this study. The three major citation indexes commonly used in the WOS database, namely the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), the Science Citation Index (SCI), and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI), were chosen as the search sources. The search spanned from 2018 to 2022 to examine the development dynamics and current status of research in the last five years. To avoid the loss of interdisciplinary literature, the sources were not streamlined. A total of 880 articles were selected and used for further quantitative analysis. To obtain more rigorous and comprehensive data indicators, the study employed VOSviewer, a bibliometric visualization software that uses a scientific bibliometric approach to empirically analyse the retrieved data. Bibliometrics refers to the quantitative analysis of various types of bibliographic data to identify potential patterns and information in the vast amount of bibliographic data available. This approach was first proposed by Pritchard in 1969. The analysis reveals that Co-SDR research output has increased significantly in the past two years. Few countries/regions, institutions, and scholars demonstrate high productivity, and research collaborations tend to be institutionally dominated and fragmented.The keyword clustering analysis shows that Co-SDR research is comprehensive and multidisciplinary, with four primary categories: #1 Healthcare Design, #2 Research Methodology, #3 Participatory Design of Public Services, and #4 Design Assessment. Together, these clusters form the hotspots of Co-SDR research, including service design methods and evaluation, user interaction, experience and co-design processes, reflecting a strong inclusive character and emphasising "user-centredness."The reference co-citation network analysis reveals that Co-SDR research is relatively mature, and the field has produced a body of classic literature. The research methodology is primarily a user-centred participatory approach, using specific quantitative evaluation metrics for service design, with the aim of improving services through co-design. Research theories include value co-creation, experience-based co-design, technical co-design, and planning studies, which have played an essential role in driving the development of subsequent research on Co-SDR.

As our daily activities are increasingly facilitated by digital services, including social interactions, shopping, work practices, banking, healthcare and transportation information, the concept of ‘big data’ and the potential opportunities therein are beginning to permeate and shape social, economic and political arenas at local, national and international levels. Consequently there is much attention given to extending the pervasive collection of data through our ever-growing service interactions. Whether through aggregating data for governments and commercial organisations to aid decision-making or for drilling down to create profiles of individuals, large-scale data sets (LSDS) are now core to service delivery, development and innovation. With expanding possibilities of data gathering there is also increasing concern, not just over personal information, surveillance and online security but also how this information and behavioural data is stored. As a field of study Service Design needs to rethink its role within service innovation to become more engaged in the interdisciplinary boundaries of social and computational science, to limit the abstraction of the human, by designing services that make explicit issues of data use, privacy and trust. This chapter addresses the opportunities for service designers to act as an agent between data holders and end-user communities, offering and facilitating translation and customisation solutions from data, and to consider how exposure to big data might Influence and instigate behavioural and attitudinal change within individuals and service users. The authors will focus on the challenges faced by Service Designers as they move into a space that is highly abductive and quantifiable whilst aiming to maintain and implement a critical human centredness perspective.

Research question Research on service innovation in sport is not theoretically aligned with service innovation theory. To address this, we conduct an empirical study utilising major service innovation theoretical approaches. We address the question: How do nonprofit sport organisations engage in service innovation? Research methods We combine existing service innovation frameworks to guide service innovation research in the nonprofit sport context. We apply it in a qualitative study, collecting data via 20 semi-structured interviews with Australian golf club managers. Data analysis relied on an inductive–deductive strategy. Results and findings We found evidence for practices following service innovation archetypes, with a propensity for the output-based and process-based archetypes, and less evidence for the systemic and experiential service innovation archetypes. Service innovation practices centred on provision and representational practices and were less dependent on management and organisational practices. Implications First, we demonstrate the complementary nature of the dominant and diverging theoretical approaches to service innovation. Second, we propose and provide empirical support for a combined conceptual framework for analysing service innovation. Finally, our research provides concrete managerial recommendations for stimulating service innovation within organisations and beyond.

This paper aims to examine the services offered by Taiwan industrial innovation base. Analysis of Taiwan fashion Institute from the perspective of actor network theory and to identify the service ecosystem and the necessity of value co-creation by using the system view and value co-creation concept in service science. Taking the service design and innovation initiatives in Xiyuan 29 Fashion Institute of Taipei as a case study. The development of the fashion industry innovation base is actually affected by the actor network system. The actor network are composed of the human actors, such as clothing industrial cluster manufacturers, local residents, local government groups, industrial investors, consumers and non-human actors include fashion apparel, industrial cluster business environment, local characteristics of cultural landscape, innovative research and development base, the theme of marketing and campaign promotion, government counseling resources etc. To continue and expand fashion institute actor network, it constantly includes various provide industry innovation technology and services. Although each of the actors in the actor network of fashion innovation base influences one another. The process and outcomes shed light on the service innovation practices for fashion industrial innovation base, and their relations are not necessarily equal. According to the study, from the actor network to think, the government to help the traditional textile industry to upgrade the transformation of fashion industry innovation base through the promotion of service innovation, the future will be able to industrial network structure and relationship to effectively adjust and change.

On October 29, 2010, the Service Design Network1 held a one-day intensive Service Design Conference in Cambridge, MA. The conference was hosted by Microsoft at the New England Research and Development Center and organized by Shelley Evenson, Jamin Hegeman, Mark Jones, and Birgit Mager. One goal of the conference was to formally extend into the United States the conversation around service design that has been developing in Europe.2 Another goal of the conference was to develop a community around service design by providing an opportunity for those practicing and interested in the subject to come together. The roughly 110 participants included practicing professionals from a variety of fields—healthcare, hospitality, government, public services, software development, and design consultancies—as well as academics from design and management schools. The participants also came from all over the United States, Canada, Germany, and South Korea. Some identified themselves as service designers in their line of work or inquiry; others have only recently become interested in service design. The participants embraced this diversity and sought new ways to find connections and common ground during the gathering. Although the conference did not have a specific title or theme, the nature of its content and speakers provides some insight into the issues that are of current importance, as well as the emergent issues in service design. The six presentation topics were “Service Design: An Organizational Challenge” by Oliver King, “The Behavior Chain: Linking the Tools and Methods of Service Design to Meaningful and Measurable Behavior Change” by Robert Fabricant, “Service Meets Social” by Shelley Evenson, “The Digital Service Experience” by Monica Bueno, “Architecting for Mass Collaboration: How Civic Hackers are Building Better City Services with Government” by Peter Corbett, and “Finding the Soul of Service Design” by Mark Jones. King emphasized the capability of service designers through the illustration of a successful project, Bueno provided heuristics for successful service design outcomes in the form of lessons, Corbett shared the experiences of civic hackers and the design of social technologies, and the other three presentations contained substance about the application of service design to social issues. In addition, a panel led by Lew McCreary had Chris McCarthy and Lorna Ross engage in a focused dialogue around services in healthcare innovation.

This paper takes service design methods and tools to improve the rural tourism service design in China. Choosing the existing tourist country Lingshui Village which is located in Mentougou district, Beijing, China as the research object. Using the methods and tools of service design to solve problems in the process of tourism industry service innovation. At last, build the Lingshui Village tourism industry service system and design new products, realize the innovation of Lingshui Village tourism service design.

Customer Participation has become a relatively mature theory in marketing with its fast development in the recent 30 years. This article brings this theory into the research of service innovation in tourism and holds the view that customer participation has changed into an important dimension in it. The external causes can be found in that it follows the shifting background setting from product economy to service economy, conforms to the competitive customer-centered environment in present-day hospitality industry, embodies the latest international trend in innovation theory and gains the full support of modern information technology. The fact that it represents the essence of all-round customer experience in modern tourism, helps the service providers with the actualization of their economic and social values, satisfies the mental needs of the service consumers accounts for the internal causes. The four basic and evaluative conclusions that the paper draws is that the atmosphere for tourism service innovation with customer participation is well-formed, it is high time to innovate tourism service to make customer participation a mainstream in the industry, and more researches on China's local practice of customer service innovation and cross-disciplinary studies are required. But meanwhile the author points out the limitations of the theory as a new perspective in tourism service innovation and warns the impossibility of it as a therapy to all problems.

Service innovation is focused on customer value creation. At its core, customer-centric service innovation in an increasingly digital world is technology-enabled, human-centered, and process-oriented. This requires a cross-disciplinary, holistic approach to new service design and development (NSD). This paper proposes a new service strategy-aligned integrative design framework for NSD. It correlates the underlying theories and principles of disparate but interrelated aspects of service design thinking: service strategy, concept, design, experience and architecture into a coherent framework for NSD, consistent with the service brand value. Application of the framework to NSD is envisioned to be iterative and holistic, accentuated on continuous organizational and customer learning. The preliminary framework’s efficacy is illustrated using a simplified telecom case example.

With the transformation of the industrial paradigm from the manufacturing industry to the service industry, many companies have utilized “service design” as an innovative performance tool to enhance customer satisfaction while increasing organizational efficiency. While interest in the use of service design or its methodology has increased in organizations, research on the factors that influence organizational innovation and performance through service design is lacking. Therefore, this study aims to explore which service design management factors affect service innovation performance. For empirical analysis, a survey was conducted on Korean companies applying service design methodologies, and hypotheses were verified through partial least square structural equations modeling (PLS-SEM). According to the analysis, top management support and customer focus influenced concept transformation, and stakeholder collaboration and customer focus affected process improvement. Conceptual transformation and internal process improvement were shown to have a positive impact on perceived service innovation. Finally, innovative service outcomes, through the application of service design, satisfied customers, which in turn increased organizational performance. This study has great significance in that it addresses the application of service design to management activities.

Service design provides the means to make sense of the complex interactions and processes experienced when delivering and receiving patient care. The tools of service design generate visual narratives that communicate experiences of and interactions between medical staff, hospital patients and carers, as well as mapping processes and systems and identifying the nature of relationships between the various stakeholders involved. Often service design tools are used to communicate what was observed and what might be done, but when used as analytical and diagnostic tools, they deliver a powerful means of sharing thinking and decision-making across a wider community beyond the designers themselves. The authors discuss the application of human-centric service design, not only as the means to design innovative service outcomes but to analyse and diagnose the complex processes involved in delivering patient care. The utilisation of this multifaceted design process resulted in richer service prognosis and propositions in concordance with the needs of patients, carers, hospital staff and clinicians than often provided by the more routine qualitative or quantitative analysis of service delivery. Using case studies of projects undertaken at University Hospital Crosshouse to illustrate our findings, this chapter explores the issues encountered during the application of service design and service thinking by clinical and non-clinical professionals, including the lessons learned in developing sustainable innovation practices that reduced reliance on the presence of designers. We highlight the dynamics of this approach, looking through the lens of person-centred service design and open innovation, how staff and service users engaged in exploring new insights and approaches.