A new conceptualization of service innovation grounded in S‐D logic and service systems

Abstract

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to conceptualize service innovation through a service‐dominant logic (S‐D logic) lens and a service system foundation.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper offers a service‐dominant logic lens and a structuration theory approach emphasizing an actor perspective on service innovation. Since the value of innovation unfolds in practice, this paper will use customer to denote the key actor in co‐creating value in context.FindingsThe paper shows how a resource constellation in a service system is reconfigured and thus explains service innovation from the lens of S‐D logic, emphasizing customers' value co‐creation of value in practices. The focus is on the interdependencies between the configuration of resources in a service system and schemas that shape customers and other actors when integrating resources and co‐creating value.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a need to discuss service innovation in a social constructivist view to better understand the guiding principles or schemas that enable actors to co‐create value.Originality/valueService innovation is understood as sourced by changes in either resources or schemas (norms and rules) or a combination, resulting in structural changes in a service system. The conceptualization provides: a new definition of service innovation; a new framework describing the interdependency between changes in resources and schemas as a basis for an innovative configuration or reconfiguration of a service system; and three propositions illustrating the relevance of this new framework.