Analyzing service innovation through the lens of organizational routines

service innovation, organizational routines, practice, longitudinal case study

How does service innovation emerge through stabilized changes in delivery routines? Drawing on theories of service innovation and organizational routines, we theoretically frame service innovation as a form of "organizational routines change". Then, through a longitudinal, explorative and inductive case study, we trace the co-evolutionary changes that relate traditional service innovation dimensions with intra-firm and cross-firm delivery routines. We submit that representing service innovation as a change in organizational routines is consistent with its multi-dimensional nature since it simultaneously addresses changes in the service delivery system, the service process, and performance outcomes. Additionally, organizational routines provide a useful lens to assess - faithful to a Schumpeterian tradition - the discontinuous nature, the replicability and the economic impact of service innovation. Finally, and more generally, the paper shows the advantage of adopting a practice lens and an organizational routine-based framework to cast light on how the service innovation process develops according to an interactive model in which planning and emergence are highly intertwined.