Emerging from the rapid growth of information technology (IT) in a digital world is the explosion and rapid ascent of IT-related service innovation occurring around the globe. All successful service innovation in a digital world consists of two main abstract domains: signs (because only signs can be digitized) and practices. Signs are perceivable, but practices are not. Signs are commonly understood as resources in the digital world, whereas practices are understood as providing context, not as resources. This article proposes a change in this perspective: according to service-dominant logic, both signs and practices can become resources for service and value cocreation. They become resources if they are integrated in a service offering. We illustrate how recent digital service innovations can be explained with this perspective and how it can be used to distinguish incremental from radical innovation. The article also suggests, using this perspective, that IT and innovation specialists can productively develop ideas and concepts for future service innovation. From the practices framework presented, directions for further research are discussed.

This publication-based dissertation covers research on service innovation and service productivity over eight chapters. The first and second chapter provide an introduction into service innovation and service productivity. The third chapter is a systematic literature review that structures research published on service productivity. The fourth chapter is a meta-analysis which analyzes the factors influencing service productivity. The fifth chapter is a quantitative empirical paper that explains how individual political behavior affects new service development at the customer interface. The sixth chapter is a multiple case study that investigates how service innovation score concepts must be designed to be reinforcing and mutually supportive with the firm service productivity strategy. The seventh chapter is a mixed empirical study that combines qualitative interview data with quantitative questionnaire data to shed light on the underlying mechanisms that enhance innovation implementation effectiveness. The eighth chapter summarizes the contributions of this dissertation as well as its limitations and potential directions for further research.:Table of contents List of tables Table of figures List of abbreviations 1. Introduction 2. Summary of research papers 2.1 First article 2.2 Second article 2.3 Third article 2.4 Fourth article 2.5 Fifth article 2.6 References 3. Service productivity: a systematic review of a dispersed research area 4. Measuring and managing service productivity: a meta-analysis 5. Political Behavior in Service Innovation: Empirical Examinations of Social Relationships 6. Combining strategies of high service productivity with successful service innovation 7. Effective innovation implementation: A mixed method study 8. Contributions, limitations, and further reserach 8.1 Contributions to research and practice 8.2 Limitations 8.3 Future research 8.4 References

At present, service-oriented organizations must confront growing challenges and competition due to the rapid pace of digital transformation and a shortage of skilled workers, catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This publication-based dissertation project covers research on the antecedents of service innovation as dy-namic capabilities with the aim of enhancing competitive advantage, given the current business dynamics. The first section of this dissertation introduces service innovation as a dynamic capability, emphasizes the need for antecedents of service innovation, and summarizes the four research papers that make up this dis-sertation. The second section presents a qualitative research paper employing a grounded theory approach. Digital leadership-related capabilities are conceptualized and the impact on dynamic service innovation ca-pabilities in digital transformation contexts is derived using an inductive framework. The third section is a mixed-method research paper that qualitatively conceptualizes innovative new work practices in service or-ganizations and quantitatively assesses their effects on workplace attractiveness for employees. The fourth section presents a multi-method exploratory research paper that identifies digital leadership capabilities us-ing expert interviews and measures the influence of these capabilities on service innovation performance. The research paper in the fifth section uses a structural equation model as a methodological frame. It iden-tifies employee-perceived service innovations and validates customer expectations within the context of po-litical behavior. The sixth section concludes the dissertation project, summarizing the theoretical and prac-tical contribution, describing limitations, and outlining further ideas for research.

Emerging from the rapid growth of information technology (IT) in a digital world is the explosion and rapid ascent of IT-related service innovation occurring around the globe. All successful service innovation in a digital world consists of two main abstract domains: signs (because only signs can be digitized) and practices. Signs are perceivable, but practices are not. Signs are commonly understood as resources in the digital world, whereas practices are understood as providing context, not as resources. This article proposes a change in this perspective: according to service-dominant logic, both signs and practices can become resources for service and value cocreation. They become resources if they are integrated in a service offering. We illustrate how recent digital service innovations can be explained with this perspective and how it can be used to distinguish incremental from radical innovation. The article also suggests, using this perspective, that IT and innovation specialists can productively develop ideas and concepts for future service innovation. From the practices framework presented, directions for further research are discussed.