Towards a theory of a practice-based approach to service innovation within spheres of interaction

This chapter is conceptual and starts from practice-based research on innovation to develop a framework of service innovation by integrating a concept of ‘relationality’ into the practice-based approach and specifying sub-practices of service innovation. The framework extends previous approaches to practice-based research on service innovation by seeking to explain more effectively how service innovations are related to the social environment and progressively become stabilized within collective structures – thereby moving the focus of service innovation research from creativity to stabilization. Stabilization refers to the acceptance of an innovation in society and the market. The chapter outlines three relational sub-practices of innovation that describe different types of interactions with the environment related to service innovation at the micro, meso and macro level. These are: the bricolage approach, the system-oriented approach, and the systemic approach. In two case vignettes, the chapter illustrates the framework and discusses implications for research and management.