A collaborative approach to manage continuous service innovation

Abstract

In dynamic market environments, companies look beyond organizational boundaries to pursue competitive advantages. When they collaborate, organizations might develop innovative service offerings and stay relevant in the market over time, enabled by advances in technologies. However, the collaborative dynamics underpinning strategies for continuous service innovation remain underexplored, such that extant research predominantly adopts an organization-centric perspective and fails to offer a comprehensive view of collaborative innovation initiatives that integrate consecutive projects across technology life cycles. To bridge these gaps, the current research applies an action research approach to the supply chain of organizations dedicated to complex technology delivery and maintenance in the maritime industry. The findings specify not just collaborative strategies for continuous service innovation but also the influential factors and operational service attributes crucial to their success. Therefore, this study proposes collaborative strategies for continuous service innovation, with the assertion that collaboration opportunities are integral to developing and managing novel services. Furthermore, this article introduces a technology life cycle perspective to the management of continuous innovation systems, which demand a collective approach to accommodate multiple technology frequencies (e.g., upkeep, update, upgrade), particularly in multi-technology contexts.