Digital service innovation: a paradigm shift in technological innovation
ISSN: 1757-5818
Article publication date: 18 November 2021
Issue publication date: 3 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Existing innovation frameworks suggest that manufacturing firms have traditionally developed a complementary model of technological innovations comprising process and product innovations (e.g. Oslo Manual). This article presents digital service innovation as a novel form of technological innovation that is capable of enhancing the performance of firms in certain manufacturing industries.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on technological innovation and digital servitization fields of research, this study argues that digital service innovation, in manufacturing contexts, complements traditional sources of technological innovation, so increasing the profit margins of firms. This effect is significant in industries characterized by business-to-business contexts, high presence of link channels and long product life spans (e.g. manufacturing and computer-based industries). Predictions are tested on a unique sample of 423 Spanish manufacturing firms using parametric (t-test) and nonparametric (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, fsQCA) approaches.
Findings
The results of this analysis show that a necessary condition so that manufacturing firms can increase profits is the deployment of simultaneous process and product innovations. It also reveals that optimal configuration requires that digital service innovation be undertaken, particularly in machinery and computer-based manufacturing industries. Hence, all three sources of technological innovation are brought together in order to reach the highest levels of company performance. The evidence suggests that technological innovation and digital servitization are closely interrelated in highly innovative manufacturing contexts.
Originality/value
This study's originality and value reside in the fact that it reveals the existence of firms incorporating digital service innovation – a new, technological innovation dimension that challenges existing innovation frameworks – to complement traditional technological innovation sources, namely process and product innovation. Moreover, the study conceptualizes and empirically tests the value-adding role of digital services in firms' technological innovation portfolio.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “The Future of Servitization in a Digital Era (Part 2)”, guest edited by Christian Kowalkowski, Tim Baines and Ali Ziaee Bigdeli.
The authors thank three anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions. Marco Opazo-Basáez, Ferran Vendrell-Herrero and Oscar F. Bustinza acknowledge support from FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades – Agencia Estatal de Investigacion, Spain (grant number PGC2018-101022-A-100).
Citation
Opazo-Basáez, M., Vendrell-Herrero, F. and Bustinza, O.F. (2022), "Digital service innovation: a paradigm shift in technological innovation", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 97-120. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-11-2020-0427
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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