sustainable service innovation

IESS 1.1 Second International Conference on Exploring Services Sciences Geneva, 16-18 February 2011

The Dual Perspective of Sustainable Development in Service Innovation: a Conceptual Model Proposition for Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs)

Pierre-Jean Barlatier and Eleni Giannopoulou

Background-Introduction

➤  Our purpose and theoretical contribution ➤  Propose a model of the complete image of sustainability in service innovation

➤  Why is this important? ➤  Innovation in Services

●  rising topic of discussion among researchers and practitioners ●  raises issues of sustainability

➤  Sustainable Innovation in Services has two aspects: ●  Sustainable/responsible innovation (environmental, economical

and social constraints) ●  Sustainable/continuous innovation

➤  BUT what about the current Research Frontier? ●  Literature has been concentrated on one or the other aspect ●  The combination is a more complete illustration of the concept

➤  Our Research Context: RTOs (higher responsibility and sensitivity towards both aspects of sustainability)

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A sneak-peak into the rest of the presentation

➤  Theoretical Elements ➤  The New Service Development (NSD) process ➤  Service Innovation through the Resource Based View (RBV) lens

●  Resources Combination and Resulting Capabilities ➤  The RTO’s assets

●  The Resource Base ●  The Experience Base ●  The Service Portfolio

➤  The two aspects of sustainability in Service Innovation (Strategy concern) ●  Sustainable/Continuous Innovation: Issues of Governance ●  Sustainable/Responsible Innovation: Environemental, Economical and

Social Responsibility

➤  The Model ➤  By Way of Discussion: A glance into existing models ➤  Conclusions

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The New Service Development (NSD) Process

Defining the NSD process is essential ➤ Various models:

➤  NPD models (Booz, Allen and Hamilton (BAH) model (1982), Kline and Rosenberg (1986))

➤  NSD models ●  Linear (Shostack (1984), Scheuing and Johnson (1989), Edgett and

Jones (1991)) ●  Iterative (Tax and Stuart (1997), De Jong et al. (2003), Johnson et

al., Zhou and Wei (2010))

➤  Iterative models illustrate better the NSD (control and flexibility)

➤  Including customers in NSD process (benefits and challenges)

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The NSD through the Resource Based View (RBV) Lens

Resource Based View (Penrose, 1959): Competitive advantage comes from a bundle of resources which are rare, valuable, imitable and without equivalent substitute

➤  Resources need to be managed effectively in order to create organizational capabilities that support the NSD process

➤  The capability to combine and deploy organizational resources is essential

➤  For innovative organizations (like RTOs) the aim is to develop innovation capabilities by deploying all their available resources

➤  Challenges arise: core capabilities should not become core rigidities (« dynamization » practices)

➤  The RTO needs to be aware of its assets in order to fully deploy and leverage them

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The RTO’s Assets for Service Innovation

Three interconnected assets: ➤  Resource Base

➤  The Importance of Human Skills ➤  The Role of Organizational Structure ➤  Information Technologies (IT) as NSD Enabler ➤  Relational Competencies

➤  The Experience Base ➤  Repository of experiences and practices in Service Development ➤  Tacit (Know-how), Explicit (Knowledge Management Systems)

➤  The Service Portfolio ➤  Capitalization of previous experiences

Experience Base

Repository of Experiences and Practices in

Service Development

Human Skills Organizational Structures Information Technologies Relational Competencies

Service Portfolio

Resource Base

Cap

italiz

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The Sustainable Development of Innovation in Services

Reminding the two aspects:

➤ Sustainable/Continuous Innovation Governance of Resources and Capabilities for the Sustainability of the Innovation Process

➤ Sustainable/Responsible Innovation Environmental, Economical and Social Responsibility in Service Innovation

It is a strategic concern to take care of both aspects

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Sustainable/Continuous Innovation: Issues of Governance (1)

Structuring service innovation

The Diamond Model by Hallenga-Brink and Brezet (2005)

➤  The Sustainable Service Innovation Framework

by Absil, Dubois, Grein, Michel and Rousseau (2008)

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Sustainable/Continuous Innovation: Issues of Governance (2)

➤ Merely structuring the innovation process is not enough Need for an overall governance of resources and capabilities towards sustainability

➤ Lack of such effective practices, however: ➤ Two monitoring systems (Leitner, 2005)

●  Benefit: RTO learn about their knowledge production systems

➤ Managerial guidance rather than monitoring ➤ Innovation and creativity culture ➤ Leadership

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Sustainable/Responsible Innovation: Environmental, Economical and

Social Responsibility

Sustainable innovation constitutes a challenge

➤ RTOs due to their interrelation with academia, industry and government: ➤  Have increased responsibility towards society

BUT also ➤  Can influence and shape innovation systems ➤  Can assist in the development of a sustainable innovation

policy ➤  Can bridge the sustainability incentives gap between industry

and government

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Organizational Assets for Service Innovation

The Model

Combination Capabilities

Sustainable Development of Innovation in Services

co-evolution

Customers Customers

New Service Development Process collaboration

Resources and Practices Governance

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Government, Industry, Academia External Environment

Experience Base

Repository of Experiences and Practices in Service

Development

Human Skills

Org. Processes & Structures Information Technologies Relational Competencies

Service Portfolio

Resource Base

Cap

italiz

atio

n

Monitoring and leveraging

A Glance at Existing Models

➤  Implications for the traditional sustainability in the innovation process (integrated strategy towards sustainability)

➤  Local references to sustainability (NSD process or culture) ➤  Noteworthy models:

➤  Brezet et al. (2001): a development process taking into account environmental issues at every step

➤  Flores et al. (2010): Four enablers to sustainable innovation; mass customization, value network, sustainable development and the complete product or service lifecycle

➤  Sustainable adaptation of the Diamond Model (Brezet et al.).

➤ However none of these models captures both internal and external aspects of sustainability

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Conclusions – Further Research

➤ Theoretical Contribution on the sustainable development of service innovation ➤  Two aspects of sustainability:

●  Sustainable/Continuous Service Innovation ●  Sustainable/Responsible Service Innovation

➤  Internal and External factors for service innovation

➤ Practical contributions ➤  From the qualitative, multiple case studies of European RTOs

➤ Expected benefits ➤  Validate and refine the model ➤  Valuable insights of sustainable service innovation current practices

within RTOs ➤  Results maybe a source of inspiration for RTOs and other knowledge

intensive organizations

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Thank you

Comments and Questions?

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