ABSTRACT

This paper examines the development of service innovation as a research field since the publication of Richard Barras’ seminal paper ‘Towards a Theory of Innovation in Services’ in 1986. It presents an exhaustive literature review of 31 years of research on service innovation. It offers some cross-sectorial perspectives on twelve key themes emerging from the literature, and on the broader research landscape and trajectories. Researchers, technologists and policy makers in the field of service innovation face issues arising from theories borrowed from economics since the 1980s and evolving through operationalization of its core themes over the last 20 years. After a description of the field, theoretical underpinnings of the field drawn from organization and management theory are discussed. The field has reached a stage where it can provide theoretical knowledge beyond the scope of the original service innovation theory, such as social innovations. A research agenda is suggested in both theoretical and thematic perspectives.

摘要

本文从Richard Barras于1986年发表的开创性论文“迈向服务创新理论”以来，考察了服务创新作为一个研究领域的发展。它对31年的服务创新研究进行了详尽的文献综述。它提供了跨领域的观点，涉及文学中出现的十二个关键主题以及更广泛的研究领域和发展轨迹。服务创新领域的研究人员，技术人员和政策制定者面临的问题源于1980年代以来从经济学中借鉴的理论，并且在过去20年中通过其核心主题的可操作性不断发展。在对该领域进行了描述之后，讨论了从组织和管理理论得出的该领域的理论基础。该领域已经可以提供超出原始服务创新理论范围的理论知识，例如社会创新。从理论和主题两个角度提出了研究议程。