Course 2026-2027 a.y.

The course is organised in three main parts.

The first part introduces the economic relevance and heterogeneity of service activities and discusses the key characteristics that distinguish services from manufacturing. It examines the implications of these features for innovation processes and highlights the challenges associated with observing and analysing innovation in service contexts.

The second part presents the main conceptual approaches to innovation in services and introduces the different forms of service innovation. Particular attention is devoted to understanding how innovations can be identified, classified, and interpreted in activities characterised by strong interaction with users and by a combination of tangible and intangible elements.

The third part applies these concepts to a variety of service sectors, including knowledge intensive business services, financial services, and platform based activities. Through the analysis of selected cases, the course highlights how innovation emerges, develops, and diffuses across different service contexts.

The course combines conceptual discussion with the analysis of empirical examples, allowing students to develop a structured and critical understanding of innovation in services.

• 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.
• Understand the business models and value generation mechanisms of different types of services

• 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.

• Lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Practical Exercises
• Collaborative Works / Assignments

The learning experience of the course is articulated around different teaching methods. Besides traditional frontal lectures, students are involved in class discussions and the analysis of case studies concerning the development of innovation in services. They also interact with guest speakers from different service companies, who provide practical insights and perspectives on innovation processes across a variety of service sectors, including banking and financial services, consulting, and insurance.

A key component of the course is a group project, in which students work in teams to analyse the development of an innovative service, from its introduction to its diffusion in the market. The project is developed progressively throughout the course, allowing students to apply the conceptual frameworks discussed in class to increasingly focused empirical contexts.

Students can approach the project in different ways:

• Focus on the introduction of an innovative service in the market, for example climate change services or peer-to-peer online payment services.
• Focus on a specific company that has introduced an innovation in services, for example Uber, Satispay, or Klarna, analysing how the innovation has contributed to its development and positioning in the market.
• Focus on the development of a new service that does not yet exist on the market. In this case, students should describe the process through which the idea is identified and assess its technical and economic feasibility.

At the end of the course, all projects are presented in class, and students are expected to actively contribute to the discussion by providing comments and feedback on the work of other groups. The final assessment of the project is based on a written report and an oral presentation.

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 accounts for 90% of this component, while the presentation accounts for 10%. The group project is developed progressively throughout the course and requires students to apply the knowledge acquired during the lectures to the analysis of an empirical case in service industries. Students are expected to examine the evolution of innovation and competition in a selected context, applying the conceptual approaches discussed in class to identify the role of technological and non-technological innovation and to assess its relevance for firms’ development and positioning. The project also allows students to develop teamwork abilities, as well as presentation and communication skills.

2) 50% written exam. The written exam is based on course readings and lecture notes and consists of open questions aimed at assessing students’ ability to apply the analytical tools illustrated during the course and to discuss the main theoretical approaches to innovation in services. The exam includes a set of statements to be critically discussed, with the objective of evaluating students’ ability to articulate their reasoning and to assess the implications of innovation both within service firms and in their competitive environment.

Given the progressive nature of the group project, regular class attendance and active participation are expected from attending students. Attendance is measured through 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 recorded.

For non-attending students, the final grade is entirely based on a written exam consisting of three compulsory open questions. The exam covers all the topics of the course and aims to assess both the understanding of the main theoretical approaches and the ability to analyse innovation patterns across different service sectors.

To this end, in addition to course readings and lecture notes, students are required to prepare a set of additional readings.