The service industry has become a major industrial sector in Taiwan. Service industry has some unique characteristics such as intangibility, perishability, heterogeneity, inseparably. These characteristics make it difficult for a service to be mass-produced, have consistent quality control, or have patent protection. In response to this kind of competitive environment, enterprises need rapid service innovation to enhance their value. Therefore, service innovation and service design are more and more important. The service blueprint is a tool for service process design. It can specify how service is provided, and support service process analysis. However, there is no generally accepted practice and software for designing service blueprints. This has hindered the enhancement of service productivity. In this these, we define requirements for service blueprints and develop a system prototype to show the feasibility of such as system. The service blueprint system can help visualize service process and identify potential fail points and innovation opportunities. It can be used by service companies to communicate service design with the staff, and find alternatives to eliminate service gaps.

The digitalization of products has become an important driver for service innovation in manufacturing firms. The embedding of digital technology in previously non-digital products creates digitalized product platforms that enable digital service innovation. Digital service innovation offers new business opportunities for manufacturing industries, as well as challenges established premises for value creation.  While digital service innovation can be found in many manufacturing industries, this thesis studies service logic in digitalized product platforms in the vehicle industry. Existing Information Systems (IS) literature presents challenges in digital service innovation relating to value, architecture, and generativity. The design of the architecture of digitalized product platforms requires the identification and combination of digital and non-digital assets. Understanding the architectural aspects is useful in digital service innovation. Moreover, with growing instances of generative digital technologies, it is challenging to develop strategies to leverage generativity for service design in digitalized product platforms. While digital technologies are embedded in products, the role of technology-embeddedness in value creation of digital services is relatively unexplored. Drawing on these challenges, this thesis describes and conceptualizes the underlying premises brought by the architecture and generativity to the value creation of services in digitalized product platforms. The research question addressed in this thesis is: What are the underlying premises for services in digitalized product platforms? To address the question, an interpretive qualitative research approach was adopted in a collaborative research project concerning services enabled by digitalization of vehicles. Drawing on digital innovation and service literature, this thesis presents a theoretical perspective on the role of the architecture and generativity of digitalized product platforms for value creation of digital services. This perspective is conceptualized as underlying premises for this specific class of services. The premises frame the service logic in digitalized product platforms and provide a ground for understanding services in digitalized product platforms in relation to value dimensions, architecture and generativity. The premises are based on five concepts: value-in-architecture, value-in-connectivity, fundamental asset for value creation, mutual dependence of modular and layered modular assets, and re-evaluation of value propositions. The proposed premises offer a basis for understanding value creation of this class of services, and guidance for manufacturing firms designing digitalized product platforms.

現今社會離婚現象普及化讓一般大眾對於婚姻一詞重新定義，也威脅到當前愛情跟婚姻的行為模式。最近所盛行的新型態的軟體，像是：Beetalk人們可以輕而易舉的利用此類的交友軟體在線上找尋自己的對象，在這些交友軟體興起所造成的影響讓男女對於感情的維繫變得導向結果論發展，也因此形成一種速食愛情的現象，也造成許多一夜情的情況發生，這跟過去婚姻所代表的永恆定義形成了強大的衝擊。 許多年輕男女變得更加不重視維繫長期性的感情關係，隨著許多交友軟體的數量增長也讓許多年輕男女視為這是正常的感情發展現象產生了許多謬誤，為了解決上述所提之社會問題，本研究了提出一項創新的經營模式以app模式來增進已經互相產生承諾的男女。為了能夠提供符合男女心理需求之服務，本研究透過創新提案的制定經過市場需求分析，調查目前台灣男女主要的感情心理需求以及活動內容的接受意願，並藉由專家訪談、消費者的深度訪談，加以驗證其實際需求與創新服務之可行性。最後提出一個能滿足社會需求並能讓服務參與者共同獲益的解決方案，並針對問卷調查結果所發現之目標客群研擬創新經營模式的營運計畫。 / Divorce is getting more and more common in Taiwanese society. This phenomenon also threatens those who are currently living in a relationship or a marriage. With modern age tools, such as apps like "Beetalk", people can find partners online, with ease. The concept behind "Beetalk" however, does not manifest in creating real and meaningful relationships, rather mostly one night affair. Many young men are becoming ingorant or uninterested in long term relationships. The popularity of dating apps is causing an advent of confusion for the meaning of love. To remedy this social problem, I propose an app-based service to enhance the intimacy between two committed lovers. This innovative business model is based on thorough analysis of academic theories and empirical studies, including expert interview, focus group discussion, and consumer behavior survey.

Service organizations need to respond rapidly to both changes in the market and customer expectations. One way of accomplishing this is through service innovation enacted to achieve competitive advantage. This study applies a service-dominant logic (SDL) lens to describe how a service organization may achieve service innovation through value co-creation that is facilitated by agile distributed methods. Literature on value co-creation is somewhat limited; although a few studies have provided guidance on what is needed to achieve value co-creation, no study has yet presented how this might be achieved. Therefore, using a single-site case study in the context of a large service organization, this study examines how value is co-created and the role that agile distributed methods play in this process. This research seeks to contribute to practice by providing service organizations with recommendations for achieving value co-creation. It contributes to theory by advancing our understanding of value co-creation processes; moreover, by using the context of an SDL, it presents a framework that maps elements of service innovation to agile distributed practices.

A continuous service innovation such as Cloud Computing is highly attractive in the business-to-business world because it brings the service provider both billions of dollars in profits and superior competitive advantage. The success of such an innovation is strongly tied to a consumer’s adoption decision. When dealing with a continuous service innovation, the consumer’s decision process becomes complicated. Not only do consumers need to consider two different decisions of both whether to adopt and how long to adopt (contract length), but also the increasing trend of the service-related technological improvements invokes a forward-looking behavior in consumer’s decision process. Moreover, consumers have to balance the benefits and costs of adoption when evaluating decision alternatives. Consumer adoption decisions come with the desire to have the latest technology and the fear of the adopted technology becoming obsolete. Non-adoption prevents consumers from being locked-in by the service provider, but buying that technology may be costly. Being bound to a longer contract forfeits the opportunity to capitalize on the technological revolution. Frequently signing shorter contracts increases the non-physical efforts such as learning, training and negotiating costs. Targeting the right consumers at the right time with the right service offer in the business-to-business context requires an efficient strategy of sales resource allocation. This is a “mission impossible” for service providers if they do not know how consumers make decisions regarding service innovation. In order to guide the resource allocation decisions, we propose a complex model that integrates the structural, dynamic, and learning approaches to understand the consumer’s decision process on both whether or not to adopt, and how long to adopt a continuously updating service innovation in a B2B context.

Certamente, uma palavra de destaque em gestão é inovação. Entretanto, sua compreensão ainda se dá predominantemente sob uma perspectiva tecnológica, portanto com um produto manufaturado como elemento central. Dessa forma, setores relevantes da economia de um país, como os serviços, muitas vezes apresentam dificuldades em compreender e aplicar a inovação em seu ambiente de negócios. Estudar o ambiente de negócios em serviços é estudar os sistemas de serviços nele existentes. Nesta tese, o autor desenvolve uma melhor compreensão sobre o tema inovação em serviços e propõe um modelo a partir da perspectiva do marketing de serviços. O trabalho de pesquisa tem início com uma revisão teórica em cinco grandes temas: (i) inovação, (ii) inovação em serviços, (iii) inovação sob a perspectiva do marketing, (iv) marketing de serviços e (v) inovação a partir da perspectiva do marketing de serviços. Por intermédio da revisão teórica, dez categorias de análise foram identificadas, sendo utilizadas na composição de um roteiro de pesquisa semiestruturado, posteriormente aplicado em campo. A metodologia de pesquisa selecionada é do tipo exploratória, com abordagem qualitativa, e a organização estudada foi o Costão do Santinho - Resort, Golf e Spa, localizado em Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, caracterizando assim um Estudo de Caso Único Integrado. As fontes de evidência utilizadas foram de entrevistador observador, entrevistas em profundidade com os gestores, documentação e evidência física. No desenvolvimento do estudo, dez categorias de análise detalham o caso e, por meio delas, há a proposição de um modelo de inovação em serviços a partir da perspectiva do marketing de serviços. Nas conclusões, o autor apresenta as contribuições do estudo, assim como identifica as limitações de campo e faz sugestões para estudos futuros. / Certainly, the word \"innovation\" is highlighted in management. However, one´s understanding about it has come predominantly from a technological perspective and, therefore, having a manufactured product as the central element. Thus, managers from industries that are relevant to the economy of countries, such as services, often have difficulties in understanding and applying innovation to their businesses\' environments. And studying the business environments in the service industry is to study the service systems within them. In this thesis, the author develops a better comprehension on the subject of service innovation and proposes a framework from the perspective of service marketing. It starts with a theoretical review of five large topics: (i) innovation; (ii) service innovation; (iii) innovation from a marketing perspective; (iv) service marketing and (v) innovation from a perspective of service marketing. As a result of the theoretical review, ten categories for analysis were identified, which were then used for creating a semi-structured interview guide that latter was applied into field research. The methodology used was that of an exploratory research and a qualitative approach. The organization studied was Costao do Santinho - Resort, Golf and Spa, located in Florianopolis, in the State of Santa Catarina, what categorizes the research as a Single Integrated Case Study. The sources of evidence used were in-depth interviews with managers, observing interviews, documentation and physical evidence. Along the thesis, the case is detailed into ten categories of analysis and, through them, the author proposes a framework for service innovation from a service marketing perspective. The author concludes by presenting the contributions of the study as well as by identifying its field limitations and suggestions for further studies.

In today´s industry there is an ongoing trend, where many companies are shifting focus from only delivering products to also offering services to their customers. Services can bring advantages, such as higher margins, competitive advantage, stabilized cash flow and strengthened customer relationships. A company that traditionally has had a strong product focus, but where services now have attracted their attention is Bosch Thermoteknik AB, active as a manufacturer in the heat pump business. In the market, which has been more and more competitive and where customer requirements are extended, it could be difficult for the company to only build on technical innovations. The aim of this thesis is thus to identify service opportunities in the heat pump business based on a customer value perspective, and proposals of how integrated service concepts may look like for Bosch Thermoteknik AB are presented. To answer the purpose, 12 semi-structured customer interviews were performed in order to identify factors contributing to customer value in the business of residential heating. Additionally, an investigation of what kind of services that are offered in the heating market was performed in order to contribute to inspiration for integrated service solutions for Bosch Thermoteknik AB. The customer interviews show that the most important value dimensions to customers are a reliable heat pump operation generating desired comfort, a system that manage itself and not require time and effort to manage, a high quality product and low operation and investment costs. Additionally, customers value knowledge to be able to handle the system in order to reach their expectations on the heating system. Many of the identified values are fulfilled to customers, however not always the latter example, especially not to those who move in to their first house where there is a heat pump installed. Regarding the investigation of different concept in the market, leasing of boilers, pay per heat unit, monitoring contracts, customer education and heat analysis where all found and contributed with inspiration in the study. The leasing concept and pay for heat were mainly marketing as an escape of a high investment cost, but since the investment cost was not seen as a big barrier for customers in this study and they were rather afraid to lose money in the long run, these solutions were not included in the recommendations for Bosch Thermoteknik AB. However, customers agreed that both solutions have advantages, such as get rid of hassles and risks especially regarding unpredictable costs. Three concept proposals were finally selected, which are Nyinflyttad, Tryggheten och Säkerställan. The first concept, Nyinflyttad, aims to give new house owners a secure feeling, where they helped by a service and education, get information of the condition of the system and get knowledge about how to handle it. Tryggheten, is rather targeting customers who need a new heat pump. Customers are here offered extended monitoring indicating problems in an early stage and additionally they are offered guidance to do easier measurements themselves. In the last concept proposal, Säkerställaren, customers are offered a heat analysis, in connection to the heat pump purchase, in order to take a more holistic perspective on the heating included both the heat pump and identification of heat loses from the house. Important to mention is that these proposals are only first drafts and there are still many aspects to investigate, not least the economic aspect as well as the organizational aspect, in order to provide the services.

Abstract As services are increasingly becoming the main focus in the traditional information communication technology industry, companies are seeking leverage from new types of collaborations, such as business ecosystems that cross industry boundaries. The health and wellness business is one service domain in which advances in technology have created the need for services that integrate technology in novel ways. To advance new service businesses, national research programmes offer funding for organisations to collaborate for developing innovative services. Forming new networks and collaboration between organisations is essential in the new business environment. Emerging business ecosystems formed in the research programme context are expanding the concept of business ecosystems. When organisations work together for the first time, challenges arise from bringing together different expectations and working styles. Additional challenges arise through issues regarding suitable integrations or in the creation of completely new services. The need to understand the practical phenomenon of emerging business ecosystems and the service innovation in these ecosystems formed the starting point of this research. The research was conducted in two separate Finnish research programmes in which the researcher actively participated. This led to the adoption of an action research strategy, comprising several activities focusing on the actor dynamics and roles as well as resolving issues arising from the ecosystem formation. In addition, the service innovation-focused research activities were based on the capabilities and domain expertise of the ecosystem companies. This research produced an understanding of the formation of wellness business ecosystems, identified the main phases of the formation and some challenges. This research found out that successful emerging business ecosystems require strong leadership early in the formation to maintain the stability and vision of the ecosystem, and each organisation should find its role within the ecosystem. The creation of viable services also requires openness between organisations. This research provides practical knowledge of the organisational actions, managerial insights and solutions to issues that are identified when organisations come together to form new ecosystems in a research programme context. / Tiivistelmä Eri ICT-alojen yritykset ovat tänä päivänä siirtyneet yhä enemmän määrittelemään toimintansa teknologian sijaan palveluratkaisujen tuottamisen sekä uudenlaisten yhteistyöratkaisujen kautta. Uusien teknologiaratkaisujen hyödyntäminen on tuonut digitalisaation myös hyvinvointialojen palveluihin. Sen myötä alalle on tullut uusia, teknologiaperustaisia ratkaisuja tuottavia pieniä toimijoita. Viime vuosina myös kansallinen tutkimushankerahoitus on tukenut uutta liiketoimintaa teknologiaperustaisten hyvinvointipalveluratkaisujen ympärille, ja edistänyt uusien yritysverkostojen, kuten liiketoimintaekosysteemien muodostumista. Kun organisaatiot ryhtyvät tekemään tiivistä yhteistyötä ensimmäistä kertaa yhdessä hankkeiden puitteissa, tuovat erilaiset odotukset ja työskentelytapojen yhteensovittaminen myös omat haasteensa yhteistyöhön. Uusien ekosysteemien muodostumista ja siihen liittyviä käytänteitä on tarvetta ymmärtää aiempaa syvällisemmin. Tämä tunnistettu tarve toimi tämän väitöstutkimuksen lähtökohtana. Tämä tutkimus toteutettiin kahdessa suomalaisessa tutkimusohjelmassa, joihin väitöstyön tekijä osallistui aktiivisena tutkijana. Tutkimus toteutettiin toimintatutkimuksena, ja siihen sisällytettiin useita tutkimustehtäviä. Tehtävien tavoitteena oli keskittyä toimijoiden keskinäiseen toimintaan ja rooleihin, ja pyrkiä ratkaisemaan ekosysteemiyhteistyöstä syntyviä haasteita. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa keskityttiin ekosysteemiyhteistyön pyrkimykseen synnyttää innovatiivista liiketoimintaa organisaatioiden yhteistyöllä. Väitöstyön tuloksena saatiin uutta ymmärrystä hyvinvointialan ekosysteemien muodostamisesta tutkimushankkeen yhteydessä ja tunnistettiin muodostumisen vaiheita sekä niihin liittyviä ongelmia. Tässä tutkimuksessa todettiin, että onnistunut yhteistyö uudessa liiketoimintaekosysteemissä vaatii vahvan johtavan yrityksen, joka tuo ekosysteemiin päämäärätietoisuutta ja vakautta. Tämän lisäksi muiden yritysten on löydettävä niille sopiva rooli ekosysteemissä. Uusien palveluiden kehittäminen ekosysteemissä vaatii avoimuutta yritysten yhteisessä toiminnassa. Väitöskirjatyö tuotti käytäntöön sovellettavaa tietoa organisaatioiden toiminnasta, ja johtamiseen kohdistuvista tarpeista. Lisäksi se tuotti ratkaisuja tunnistettuihin ongelmiin, joita organisaatioiden yhteistyö ekosysteemin muodostamisen alkuvaiheessa aiheutti tässä työssä tarkastelluissa tutkimushankkeissa.

The topics of value propositions and service innovation have been highly interesting topics within service-dominant logic. Something that has not been studied in previous research, and the purpose of this thesis, is to investigate; how current value propositions restrict service innovation by restricting digital resource utilization. These restrictions on service innovation could sometimes result in casualties, for example caused by adverse drug reactions, which is one reason why this research question is important. The method used in this thesis is a case study analysis on a pharmaceutical company, which was produced by conducting qualitative interviews and creating a thematic analysis. The analysis is based on empirical material and the literature on value propositions and service innovation. Service innovation is restricted when different practices that constitute the value proposition are restricted in their use of digital resources. The specific restrictions are regulations, inadequate understanding of digital resources' benefits, complexity of implementing digital resources, measuring difficulties, and comfort and protection of current practices. / Ämnena värdeerbjudande och tjänsteinnovation har varit av högt intresse inom tjänstelogiken. Något som inte har studerats i tidigare forskning, och syftet med denna studie, är att undersöka; hur nuvarande värdeerbjudande hindrar tjänsteinnovation genom att hindra utnyttjandet av digitala resurser. Dessa hinder av tjänsteinnovation kan i vissa fall leda till dödsfall vilket är en anledning till att forskningsfrågan är viktig. Metoden i denna uppsats är en fallstudie av ett läkemedelsföretag, som genomfördes genom kvalitativa intervjuer och en tematisk analys. Analysen i uppsatsen är baserad på litteratur om ämnet värdeerbjudande och ämnet tjänsteinnovation. Uppsatsen visar att tjänsteinnovation hindras när företagets värdeerbjudande hindras från att inkorporera digitala resurser. De specifika hindren studien visar är; reglering, bristande förståelse för fördelarna med digitala resurser, komplexitet vid implementering, mätproblem, och bekvämlighet och beskyddande.

The service economy is flourishing and due to high competition, manufacturers are turning to service innovation as way to distinguish and meet their customers increasing and changing demands. Service design and an increased utilization of employees are seen as way of improving the innovative capabilities. The aim of this thesis is to explore in a manufacturing company undergoing servitization, what is the role of front-line-employees (FLE) for service innovation and in what ways can front-line-employees be leveraged to enhance a firm’s service innovation capability? To do so, a hermeneutical research approach was adopted to interpret both FLEs collective customer understanding and the strategic view from management and service design within a company. Results reveal an encountered complexity and unstructured development of customer knowledge through long ongoing relations where the continuous identification of customer needs is a unformalized process and FLEs are relying on experience and tacit knowledge to do so. The study identifies FLEs as a resource to innovation, with aggregated customer knowledge, product knowledge and practice knowledge and are mainly contributing as a supporting actor in the innovation process. The study makes a contribution by emphasizing the needed support to empower FLEs as contributors to service innovation. Service design tools and techniques are a suggested way to provide structure and formalization in the involvement of FLEs into the innovation process. Future studies should aim to validate and explore the suggestions further through a comprehensive study of the inter-organizational customer knowledge creation and dissemination and its effect on service innovation.