A bricolage perspective on service innovation

Witell, Lars; Gebauer, Heiko; Jaakkola, Elina; Hammedi, Wafa; Patricio, Lia; Perks, Helen

Abstract

Service innovation is often viewed as a process of accessing the necessary resources, (re)combining them, and converting them into new services. The current knowledge on success factors for service innovation, such as formalized new service development (NSD) processes, predominantly comes from studying large firms with a relatively stable resource base. However, this neglect situations in which organizations face severe resource constraints. This paper argues that under such constraints, a formalized new service development process could be counter-productive and a bricolage perspective might better explain service innovation in resource-constrained environments. In this conceptual paper, we propose that four critical bricolage capabilities (addressing resource scarcity actively, making do with what is available, improvising when recombining resources, and networking with external partners) influence service innovation outcomes. Empirical illustrations from five organizations substantiate our conceptual development. Our discussion leads to a framework and four testable propositions that can guide further service research.

Citation

Witell, L., Gebauer, H., Jaakkola, E., Hammedi, W., Patricio, L., & Perks, H. (in press). A bricolage perspective on service innovation. Journal of Business Research, 79, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.03.021

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 24, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Apr 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jun 29, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 2, 2018
• Journal: Journal of Business Research
• Print ISSN: 0148-2963
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-7978
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 79
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.03.021
• Keywords: Service innovation; Bricolage; Entrepreneurship; Resource-constrained environments; Social innovation; Capabilities
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/854230
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.03.021
• Contract Date: Jun 29, 2017