F1 Taiteellinen erillisjulkaisu
Incremental service innovations in a manufacturing firm’s delivery chain
Tekijät: Nenonen S, Vaittinen E, Martinsuo M
Julkaisuvuosi: 2016
Kokoomateoksen nimi: 23rd Innovation and Product Development Management Conference (IPDMC)
Sarjan nimi: Innovation and Product Development Management Conference
Verkko-osoite: https://researchportal.tuni.fi/en/publications/9884e9e0-04e9-45c5-9801-b1d4046902d0
Tiivistelmä
Manufacturing companies that provide services for consumers deliver service offerings through a retailer network. In such cases, the engagement of the various actors in the delivery chain provides multidimensional information required for successful development of services and innovations. Although the need to use delivery chain actors{\textquoteright} differing potential in innovation has been widely recognized, the different actors{\textquoteright} contribution to generating ideas to improve existing services is missing. This paper contributes to the literature by discussing the potential for creating these types of incremental service innovations in different parts of the delivery chain. The data were collected by interviews and questionnaires among customers, retailers and sales persons who are part of a product-related service delivery chain in three countries. The study shows that ideas for improvement were expressed infrequently by all the actors, but particularly by consumers, even though the service users{\textquoteright} role in developing services has been emphasized in the literature. The different actors provided recurring but also some different improvement ideas. The consumers{\textquoteright} typical ideas were general and rather self-evident, whereas the salespeople focused more on improving the service promotion and service process and retailers, in turn, took a broader approach. As the different stakeholders in the delivery chain offer different improvement idea contents for the manufacturing firm and cover service innovation dimensions only partly, manufacturing firms need a holistic strategy for incremental service innovations.
Manufacturing companies that provide services for consumers deliver service offerings through a retailer network. In such cases, the engagement of the various actors in the delivery chain provides multidimensional information required for successful development of services and innovations. Although the need to use delivery chain actors{\textquoteright} differing potential in innovation has been widely recognized, the different actors{\textquoteright} contribution to generating ideas to improve existing services is missing. This paper contributes to the literature by discussing the potential for creating these types of incremental service innovations in different parts of the delivery chain. The data were collected by interviews and questionnaires among customers, retailers and sales persons who are part of a product-related service delivery chain in three countries. The study shows that ideas for improvement were expressed infrequently by all the actors, but particularly by consumers, even though the service users{\textquoteright} role in developing services has been emphasized in the literature. The different actors provided recurring but also some different improvement ideas. The consumers{\textquoteright} typical ideas were general and rather self-evident, whereas the salespeople focused more on improving the service promotion and service process and retailers, in turn, took a broader approach. As the different stakeholders in the delivery chain offer different improvement idea contents for the manufacturing firm and cover service innovation dimensions only partly, manufacturing firms need a holistic strategy for incremental service innovations.
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