Tilbake til søkeresultatene

FORFI-Kunnsk.gr.l.f.forskn.innov.pol

MISSING - Measuring Innovation in Service Systems; Indicators on New Grounds

Tildelt: kr 2,9 mill.

Policy brief based on the results from the MISSING- project funded by the FORFI programme of the Research Council of Norway Per Egil Pedersen,University College of Southeast Norway and Norwegian School of Economics, Are Branstad, University College of Southeast Norway and Eirik Vatne, Norwegian School of Economics MISSING – Measuring innovation in service systems Introduction – The MISSING project The innovation system of services is less well understood than the innovation system of manufacturing and many of the innovation system models currently applied as a basis for policy decisions give little advice on how to stimulate productive service innovation. The MISSING-project was established to improve our understanding of the innovation system of service innovation by taking a service system perspective based on service logic. The project involved researchers from the Norwegian School of Economics, Buskerud and Vestfold University College (now University College of Southeast Norway) and University of Agder. In its first work package (WP1), the project included a conceptual literature study on the relationship between the service research and innovation studies literatures to see how the findings in both may be integrated and transformed into service innovation policy recommendations. The second work package (WP2) of the project included a quantitative study of the innovation patterns of four service systems and a qualitative study of the innovation patterns in three of these service systems – scale intensive network services, scale intensive physical services and personal services. The study also analyzed the firm level performance effects of the innovation patterns and discussed the innovation policy implications of the findings. The third work package (WP3) of the project included an investigation of service innovation systems from the perspective of high growth service firms supported by risk money. It included two empirical studies; a small-scale survey of fund managers and a detailed qualitative study of 21 portfolio firms. Again, innovation policy implications were developed from the findings of the two studies. If we were to summarize the main policy messages from each of these three WP’s, providing one main implication from each one, they may be summarized as the following: · WP1: To stimulate service innovation, we must broaden the concept of innovation policy considerably when compared to conventional approaches and develop a more fine-grained policy combining supply and demand side tools in new and untraditional ways. · WP2: No universal service innovation policy is optimal. Specific service innovation policies should be designed to match the innovation patterns and practices of individual service sectors/systems as well as be adapted to the objectives of innovation at the firm, network or society level. Thus, service innovation policy must follow the principles of a rather complex innovation policy mix. · WP3: As the main innovation system of fast growing service firms consists of internal human resources, customers and close business networks resources, public sector should concentrate on setting up a useful infrastructure for communication and education, helping start-ups and early stage ventures, and create financial incentives promoting innovative initiatives in firms. Context – Service, services and service innovation Recent years, service innovation has gained considerable attention. There are several reasons for this. The service sector represents more than 70% of GDP in EU27 and the majority of recent employment growth has been due to growth in services. The GDP of service intensive countries is higher than that of less service intensive countries, and the development of a knowledge intensive service sector is closely linked to the quality of working life and the wealth of a country. Knowledge intensive service activities (KISA) and knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) are believed to be drivers of innovation in many sectors. Finally, due to ICT and new forms of organization, international service trade is growing and is expected to grow even more in coming years. Despite these positive characteristics of services and service innovation, significant challenges exist at the regulatory, industry and firm levels. At the regulatory level it is difficult to design policy measures, partly because the service sector is a heterogeneous collection of industries and partly because more and more manufacturing industries also engage in service activities (servitization). The sources of market and system failures of services are not well understood and services productivity seems to be a particular challenge. At the industry level, it is suggested that we lack statistics properly describing service innovation. We have applied, sometimes inappropriately, theories, models and concepts from innovation in manufacturing industries to services. We now know that service sector innovation is di

The service sector represents more than 70% of GDP in EU27 and the GDP of service intensive countries is higher than that of less service intensive countries. However, there is a negative relationship between the size of the service sector and a country's productivity growth that can only be overcome by service innovation. The innovation system of services is less well understood than the innovation system of manufacturing and many of the innovation system models currently applied as a basis for policy de cisions give poor advice for stimulating service innovation. This project aims to improve our understanding of the innovation system of service innovation by taking a service system perspective based on service dominant logic. It includes a conceptual st udy developing the conceptual framework for empirically applying this perspective, a set of empirical studies applying the conceptual framework to measure innovation and innovation effects in selected service systems, and a policy brief suggesting implica tions of the perspective if applied to develop policy tools and to make policy decisions. The project includes support for funding a postdoctoral position and involves researchers from The Norwegian School of Economics, NTNU, Vestfold University College, University of Karlstad, Copenhagen Business School and Manchester Business School.

Budsjettformål:

FORFI-Kunnsk.gr.l.f.forskn.innov.pol

Temaer og emner