Course 2018-2019 a.y.

20292 - INNOVATION IN SERVICES

Department of Management and Technology

Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 31
CLMG (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/06) - M (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/06) - IM (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/06) - MM (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/06) - AFC (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/06) - CLEFIN-FINANCE (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/06) - CLELI (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/06) - ACME (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/06) - DES-ESS (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  12 credits SECS-P/06) - EMIT (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/06) - GIO (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/06)
Course Director:
NICOLETTA CORROCHER

Classes: 31 (I sem.)
Instructors:
Class 31: NICOLETTA CORROCHER


Prerequisites

No formal prerequisites.

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

Nowadays the distribution of employment and value added is shifting away from the manufacturing sectors towards service sectors, following the process of deindustrialisation that is characterising not only developed countries, but also industrialising countries. Given that services are playing an increasingly important role into the economic systems, it is paramount to understand whether and to what extent service companies develop innovations, as they might represent a major force into the growth of countries. This course provides students with a deep understanding of the characteristics and dynamics of innovation in the service sectors. In this context, it puts emphasis on the economic and social relevance of the service sectors and their role as innovative actors within the economy; it highlights the specificities of services and the differences across service activities; it identifies the specificities of innovation in service sectors as compared to manufacturing sectors and discusses ways of measuring innovations in services. Furthermore, it allows students to grasp how different service companies engage in the development of innovations through the analysis of selected sectoral case studies.

CONTENT SUMMARY

The course is organised around four modules that cover all the relevant aspect of innovation in services:

  • The role of service sectors in the economy.
  • The main characteristics of the service activities.
  • The process of innovation in service sectors and companies.
  • Sectoral case studies in services.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Recognise the importance of services (as opposed to manufacturing activities) in the economy in terms of employment, value added and innovation.
  • Identify the characteristics of service activities and their implications for innovation.
  • Discuss the features of innovation processes in services in light of the different approaches developed by the literature.
  • Acknowledge the differences across different service sectors in terms of type of competitors, users, knowledge base, modes of innovation.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Analyse the process of structural change and the growing role of services within the economy in terms of employment, value added and innovation.
  • Apply the methodologies and relevant theoretical approaches to discuss the characteristics of service activities and their implications for innovation.
  • Measure and evaluate innovation in services.
  • Develop new service ideas.
  • Show teamwork abilities and presentation/communication skills.

Teaching methods

  • Face-to-face lectures
  • Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
  • Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
  • Group assignments

DETAILS

The learning experience of the course is articulated around different teaching methods. Besides traditional frontal lectures, the students have the opportunity to discuss case studies and incidents concerning the development of innovation in services, to interact with guest speakers from different service companies, who provide their practical insights and perspectives on the process of innovation in different service sectors (from banking to consulting, from tourism to education, to cultural services), to work in team for the development of a final group project. The group work should aim at the analysis of the development of an innovative service, from the idea to the market introduction and diffusion. There are three possible ways in which students can tackle this issue:

  1. Focus on the introduction of an innovative service in the market – e.g. low cost air transport.
  2. Focus on a single company that has introduced an innovation in services in the market and has consequently acquired (more) visibility in the market and increased its profits – e.g. Uber.
  3. Focus on a project of a new service, which does not yet exist on the market. In this case, students should carefully describe the techniques and research adopted to identify the idea and evaluate its technical and economic feasibility.

At the end of the course, all projects are presented and all students actively participate to the discussion, providing their comments and perspectives on the cases developed by other groups. Students are supposed to prepare a report of their case, which are used for the student assessment together with the presentation.


Assessment methods

  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Written individual exam (traditional/online)
     x
  • Group assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
   x  

ATTENDING STUDENTS

In order to evaluate the acquisition of the above-mentioned learning outcomes, the assessment procedure involves two main parts:

  1. 50% group work (written report and final presentation). The report is worth 90% of the final grade, while the presentation accounts for 10%.
  2. 50% written exam (2 open questions out of 3) based on course readings and lecture notes.

The attendance is measured with the "Attendance" procedure available to all students. In order to take the exam as an attending student, an attendance rate equal to or higher than 75% must be reported.


NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

For non attending students, the final grade is completely based on a written exam including 3 compulsory open questions, which cover all the topics of the course and aim at assessing the learning outcomes both in terms of the understanding of theoretical approaches and in terms of the capability to analyse different issues in relation to innovation patterns in different service sectors. To this aim, besides course readings and lecture notes, students have to prepare on a set of additional readings.


Teaching materials


ATTENDING STUDENTS

  • I. MILES, Patterns of innovation in the service industries, 2008, IBM Systems Journal, vol. 47(1), pp.115-128.
  • S.L.VARGO, R.F. LUSCH, The Four Service Marketing Myths, Journal of Service Research, 2004, 6(4), 324-335.
  • F. GALLOUJ, O. WEINSTEIN, Innovation in services, 1997, Research Policy 27, pp.537-556.
  • F. CASTELLACCI, Technological paradigms, regimes and trajectories: Manufacturing and service industries in a new taxonomy of sectoral patterns of innovation, Research Policy 2008,  37, pp.978-994.
  • B. TETHER, Do Services Innovate (Differently)? Insights from the European Innobarometer Survey, Industry and Innovation 2015, 12, pp.153-184.
  • L.L. BERRY, V. SHANKAR, J. TURNER, PARISH, S. CADWALLADER, T. DOTZEL, Creating New Markets Though Service Innovation, MIT Sloan Management Review 2006, 47(2), 56-63.
  • R. BARRAS, Towards a theory of innovation in services, Research Policy 15, 1986, pp. 161-173.
  • F. GALLOUJ, Innovating in reverse: services and the reverse product cycle, European Journal of Innovation Management, 1998, 1(3) pp.123-138.
  • N. CORROCHER, L. ZIRULIA, Demand and Innovation in Services: the Case of Mobile Communications, Research Policy 39, 2010, pp.945-955.
  • E. MULLER, D. DOLOREUX, The key dimensions of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) analysis: a decade of evolution, Fraunhofer Institute Systems and Innovation Research, Working Papers Firms and Region 2007, No. U1/2007.
  • N. CORROCHER, L. CUSMANO, A. MORRISON, Modes of innovation in knowledge-intensive business services: Evidence from Lombardy, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 2009, 19(2), 173-196.
  • F. MALERBA, V. PERRONE, N, CORROCHER, R. FONTANA,  Poste Italiane. Innovation – a winning strategy,  Cap. 4, pp.123-137.
  • J. SUNDBO, F. ORFILIA-SINTES, F. SORENSEN, The innovative behaviour of tourism firms-Comparative studies of Denmark and Spain, Research Policy 36, 88-106, 2007. 
  • A. HIJALAGER, Repairing innovation defectiveness in tourism, Tourism Management 23, pp.465-474, 2002.
  • F. DJELLAL, F. GALLOUJ, Mapping innovation dynamics in hospitals, Research Policy 34, pp.817-835, 2005.

NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

  • I. MILES, Patterns of innovation in the service industries, 2008, IBM Systems Journal, vol. 47(1), pp.115-128.
  • S.L.VARGO, R.F. LUSCH, The Four Service Marketing Myths, Journal of Service Research 2004, 6(4), 324-335.
  • F. GALLOUJ, O. WEINSTEIN, Innovation in services, 1997, Research Policy 27, pp.537-556.
  • F. CASTELLACCI, Technological paradigms, regimes and trajectories: Manufacturing and service industries in a new taxonomy of sectoral patterns of innovation, Research Policy 2008,  37, pp.978-994.
  • B. TETHER, Do Services Innovate (Differently)? Insights from the European Innobarometer Survey, Industry and Innovation 2015, 12, pp.153-184.
  • L.L. BERRY, V. SHANKAR, J. TURNER, PARISH, S. CADWALLADER, T. DOTZEL, Creating New Markets Though Service Innovation, MIT Sloan Management Review 2006, 47(2), 56-63.
  • R. BARRAS, Towards a theory of innovation in services, Research Policy 15, 1986, pp. 161-173.
  • F. GALLOUJ, Innovating in reverse: services and the reverse product cycle, European Journal of Innovation Management, 1998, 1(3) pp.123-138.
  • N. CORROCHER, L. ZIRULIA, Demand and Innovation in Services: the Case of Mobile Communications, Research Policy 39, 2010, pp.945-955.
  • E. MULLER, D. DOLOREUX, The key dimensions of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) analysis: a decade of evolution, Fraunhofer Institute Systems and Innovation Research, Working Papers Firms and Region 2007, No. U1/2007.
  • N. CORROCHER, L. CUSMANO, A. MORRISON, Modes of innovation in knowledge-intensive business services: Evidence from Lombardy, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 2009, 19(2), 173-196.
  • F. MALERBA, V. PERRONE, N, CORROCHER, R. FONTANA,  Poste Italiane. Innovation – a winning strategy,  Cap. 4, pp.123-137.
  • J. SUNDBO, F. ORFILIA-SINTES, F. SORENSEN, The innovative behaviour of tourism firms-Comparative studies of Denmark and Spain, Research Policy 36, 88-106, 2007. 
  • A. HIJALAGER, Repairing innovation defectiveness in tourism, Tourism Management 23, pp.465-474, 2002.
  • F. DJELLAL, F. GALLOUJ, Mapping innovation dynamics in hospitals, Research Policy 34, pp.817-835, 2005.

  • R. BARRAS, Interactive innovation in financial and business services: The vanguard of the service revolution, Research Policy 19, 215-237, 1990.

  • J. SUNDBO,  F. ORFILA-SINTES, F. SORESAN, The innovative behaviour of tourism firms - Comparative studies of Denmark and Spain, Research Policy 36, 88-106, 2007.

  • B.S. TETHER, C. HIPP, J. MILES, Standardisation and particularisation in services: evidence from Germany, Research Policy 30, 1115-1138, 2001.

  • U. SCHMOCH, Service marks as novel innovation indicator, Research Evaluation 12(2), 149-156, 2003.

Last change 09/06/2018 19:42