Dissociation, Association, or Addition? Conceptualizing the Interplay of Mechanisms for Recombinant Digital Innovation in Service Systems

Recombinant innovation is a useful approach to generate new digital service solutions with the help of established resources. However, it is unclear how its underlying mechanisms are interrelated and why they are applied. Based on theory from service systems and digital innovation, we analyze the interplay of dissociative, associative, and additive recombination by using the example of the media industry in a multiple case study. We find that the three mechanisms are applied in a supplementary concatenation and triggered by internal and external drivers. We contribute to IS literature by developing a conceptual model that illustrates the nexus of the mechanisms based on digital technologies as the central resource in service systems

Is Newer Always Better? Assessing Recombination Types of Digital Services

Organizations rely on recombination to develop new innovative services. However, a comprehensive understanding of the influence of different recombination types on user perceptions of such services is missing. Based on theory from service science and the concept of recombinant digital innovation, we derived a TAM-based research model to study how associative and additive recombination types influence user perceptions of services and tested it in an online experiment with 362 participants. Our results show that additive recombination types are more capable of positively affecting perceived novelty, perceived value, and adoption intention than associative types, which is dependent on the respective setting of the service. We contribute to research by shedding light on the influence of different recombination types on user perceptions of services and the need for operand-specific digital innovation in service systems. Practitioners can use our findings to improve the configuration of service systems