Creating value through service innovation : an effectual design thinking framework

Abstract

Purpose: Research reveals the disjointed nature of service innovation and an overall desertion in research studies towards cumulative knowledge development. In addition, studies show a lack of focus on customers and employees as the fundamental resources for innovation and value creation. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to investigate how service innovation can be more comprehensive, systematic, and focused on the customer and employee resources of the service firm.

Approach: The author investigated the extant service innovation literature, along with the expounding subject matters for service innovation and value creation. These subjects included: resource-advantage theory; the concepts of operand and operant resources; the topics of knowledge exploration and exploitation; the factors of design-in-quality; as well as the notion of wicked problem-solving. In addition, the active voice explored and examined the recommended study fields of effectuation theory and the design thinking methodology.

Methodology: The constructivist paradigm guided the research design and methodology employed for this study. The investigative, qualitative research design incorporated an inductive and deductive research approach and utilised 24 semi-structured interviews as the data collection method. The collected data were investigated with the use of a predetermined coding frame and analysed by way of a six-phased thematic analysis process. The 24 participants were purposively sampled to include leading service firms in the private sector of South Africa within four prominent branches of industry. These branches of industry included: business consulting services; education services; financial services; and technology, media, and telecommunication services.

Findings: The research findings and conclusions allowed for an improved understanding of service innovation and value creation that is more comprehensive, systematic, and focused on the customer and employee resources of the firm. In particular, the findings identified four constructs, or else, structured phases, in support of this improved understanding. These constructs comprise of the focus, frame, function, and forms essential to the establishment of effective innovation and value creation.

Contribution: This study contributes to cumulative knowledge development by constructing an effectual design thinking framework for the creation of value through service innovation. The framework, titled: The 4F Framework for Service Innovation and Value Creation, is an approach and development process that is purpose-driven, human-centred, and means-enabled towards service solutions of purpose, superior performance, and sustainable impact.

Research limitations and future research: Notwithstanding the richness of the study’s findings, the researcher acknowledges some limitations, notably with regard to the research design and methodology employed. In this regard, the qualitative research design is context-dependant, and overall non-generalisable. Accordingly, the findings should be understood in terms of the particular social world being studied. In addition, sampled participants were limited to service firms in South Africa, and was restricted to four branches of industry. Moreover, the cross-sectional approach incorporated may introduce biases due to the issue of temporality. Given the constructivist paradigm of the researcher, the attainment of objectivity, in an absolute sense, is improbable. Despite efforts to establish greater rigour in the research findings, by incorporating the criteria of trustworthiness, it remains subject to potential biases. Regardless of the noted limitations, the researcher believes that the study’s findings, and the benefit provided by the proposed framework, outweigh the research limitations. Moreover, these limitations were used to identify and recommend potential avenues for further research, and so, the construction and reconstruction of knowledge, to the benefit of the research and business community.