Typology of innovation process in services

Abstract

Services have expanded rapidly over last twenty years and they play a dominant role in advanced economies today. The economic research reflects these structural changes by increasing interest in integrating services into the traditional value chain. This study aims at creating conceptual framework for measuring innovation in services and for identifying different innovation patterns in service sector. The need for the concept of innovation patterns in services results firstly from the different character of the innovation process in services and in manufacturing and secondly from the high degree of heterogeneity inside the service sector. The concept presented in this study summarizes recent approaches to service innovation and creates four groups of services according the types of their innovation activities. These groups are: science-based services, problem solving services, scale-oriented services and market-oriented services. This study represents a basis for follow-up analysis of innovation efficiency in Czech business services sector.value chain, service innovation, innovation process