Services innovation:: Knowledge transfer and the supply chain

Summary The past decade has seen, in response to the growth in service industries, increasing interest in what has been termed services science and innovation. This embryonic research field has been promoted by far sighted enterprises, government agencies and academics, the basic premise being that for far too long we have concentrated on the study and practice of physical and aesthetic innovation: designed to add value through maintaining end product leadership. Services science embodies and marshals a multi-disciplinary approach: science, engineering and management; in an effort to address and build upon complex service related opportunities. A sub-set, or possibly the driving force, of services science, is services innovation: dealing not so much with the end product but rather with the support, development and delivery of services: that are now the lifeblood of our developed economies. This paper provides a brief overview of services science and innovation, articulating a case for ensuring that we do not, in our pursuit of sustained competitive advantage and short-term economic growth, adopt a too narrowly defined and puritanical view of innovation and ignore the importance of the service exchange. Sustainable growth, we argue, is based upon identifying, supporting and nurturing meaningful service exchanges that exploit, develop and embody value added knowledge transfer within and across industry. It is time to broaden the services innovation debate in an effort to reach the many practitioners, academics and policy makers not as yet engaged with this exciting now field.