The document proposes a conceptual model for sustainable service innovation at research and technology organizations (RTOs). The model depicts the dual perspective of sustainable development in service innovation, accounting for both sustainable/continuous innovation through effective governance of resources and capabilities, as well as sustainable/responsible innovation regarding environmental, economic and social responsibility. The model illustrates how RTOs can leverage their resource base, experience base, and service portfolio through the new service development process and collaboration with customers and external stakeholders to achieve sustainable innovation.

1. IESS 1.1
Second International Conference on Exploring Services Sciences
Geneva, 16-18 February 2011
The Dual Perspective of Sustainable Development in
Service Innovation: a Conceptual Model Proposition
for Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs)
Pierre-Jean Barlatier and Eleni Giannopoulou

2. Background-Introduction
➤ Our purpose and theoretical contribution
➤ Propose a model of the complete image of sustainability in service innovation
➤ Why is this important?
➤ Innovation in Services
● rising topic of discussion among researchers and practitioners
● raises issues of sustainability
➤ Sustainable Innovation in Services has two aspects:
● Sustainable/responsible innovation (environmental, economical
and social constraints)
● Sustainable/continuous innovation
➤ BUT what about the current Research Frontier?
● Literature has been concentrated on one or the other aspect
● The combination is a more complete illustration of the concept
➤ Our Research Context: RTOs (higher responsibility and sensitivity
towards both aspects of sustainability)
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3. A sneak-peak into the rest of the
presentation
➤ Theoretical Elements
➤ The New Service Development (NSD) process
➤ Service Innovation through the Resource Based View (RBV) lens
● Resources Combination and Resulting Capabilities
➤ The RTO’s assets
● The Resource Base
● The Experience Base
● The Service Portfolio
➤ The two aspects of sustainability in Service Innovation (Strategy concern)
● Sustainable/Continuous Innovation: Issues of Governance
● Sustainable/Responsible Innovation: Environemental, Economical and
Social Responsibility
➤ The Model
➤ By Way of Discussion: A glance into existing models
➤ Conclusions
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4. The New Service Development
(NSD) Process
Defining the NSD process is essential
➤ Various models:
➤ NPD models (Booz, Allen and Hamilton (BAH) model (1982),
Kline and Rosenberg (1986))
➤ NSD models
● Linear (Shostack (1984), Scheuing and Johnson (1989), Edgett and
Jones (1991))
● Iterative (Tax and Stuart (1997), De Jong et al. (2003), Johnson et
al., Zhou and Wei (2010))
➤ Iterative models illustrate better the NSD (control and
flexibility)
➤ Including customers in NSD process (benefits and
challenges)
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5. The NSD through the Resource
Based View (RBV) Lens
Resource Based View (Penrose, 1959): Competitive
advantage comes from a bundle of resources which are rare,
valuable, imitable and without equivalent substitute
➤ Resources need to be managed effectively in order to create
organizational capabilities that support the NSD process
➤ The capability to combine and deploy organizational resources is
essential
➤ For innovative organizations (like RTOs) the aim is to develop
innovation capabilities by deploying all their available resources
➤ Challenges arise: core capabilities should not become core
rigidities (« dynamization » practices)
➤ The RTO needs to be aware of its assets in order to fully
deploy and leverage them
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6. The RTO’s Assets for Service
Innovation
Three interconnected assets:
➤ Resource Base
➤ The Importance of Human Skills
➤ The Role of Organizational Structure
➤ Information Technologies (IT) as NSD Enabler
➤ Relational Competencies
➤ The Experience Base
➤ Repository of experiences and practices in Service Development
➤ Tacit (Know-how), Explicit (Knowledge Management Systems)
➤ The Service Portfolio
➤ Capitalization of previous experiences
Resource Base
Capitalization
Human Skills Experience Base
Organizational Structures Service
Repository of
Information Technologies Experiences and Practices in Portfolio
Relational Competencies Service Development
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7. The Sustainable Development of
Innovation in Services
Reminding the two aspects:
➤ Sustainable/Continuous Innovation
Governance of Resources and Capabilities for the Sustainability of
the Innovation Process
➤ Sustainable/Responsible Innovation
Environmental, Economical and Social Responsibility in Service
Innovation
It is a strategic concern to take care of both aspects
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8. Sustainable/Continuous Innovation:
Issues of Governance (1)
Structuring service innovation
The Diamond Model
by Hallenga-Brink and Brezet (2005)
➤ The Sustainable Service Innovation
Framework
by Absil, Dubois, Grein, Michel and Rousseau (2008)
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9. Sustainable/Continuous Innovation:
Issues of Governance (2)
➤ Merely structuring the innovation process is not enough
Need for an overall governance of resources and
capabilities towards sustainability
➤ Lack of such effective practices, however:
➤ Two monitoring systems (Leitner, 2005)
● Benefit: RTO learn about their knowledge production systems
➤ Managerial guidance rather than monitoring
➤ Innovation and creativity culture
➤ Leadership
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10. Sustainable/Responsible Innovation:
Environmental, Economical and
Social Responsibility
Sustainable innovation constitutes a challenge
➤ RTOs due to their interrelation with academia,
industry and government:
➤ Have increased responsibility towards society
BUT also
➤ Can influence and shape innovation systems
➤ Can assist in the development of a sustainable innovation
policy
➤ Can bridge the sustainability incentives gap between industry
and government
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11. The Model
Customers
Customers
collaboration
New Service Development Process
Combination
Capabilities
Monitoring and leveraging
Resource Base
Human Skills Organizational Assets for
Experience Base
Capitalization
Org. Processes & Structures
Information Technologies
Service Repository of in Service
Innovation
Experiences and Practices
Service
Portfolio
Relational Competencies Development
Resources and Practices Governance
Sustainable Development of Innovation in
Services
co-evolution
External Environment
Government, Industry, Academia
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12. A Glance at Existing Models
➤ Implications for the traditional sustainability in the innovation
process (integrated strategy towards sustainability)
➤ Local references to sustainability (NSD process or culture)
➤ Noteworthy models:
➤ Brezet et al. (2001): a development process taking into account
environmental issues at every step
➤ Flores et al. (2010): Four enablers to sustainable innovation;
mass customization, value network, sustainable development
and the complete product or service lifecycle
➤ Sustainable adaptation of the Diamond Model (Brezet et al.).
➤ However none of these models captures both
internal and external aspects of sustainability
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13. Conclusions – Further Research
➤ Theoretical Contribution on the sustainable
development of service innovation
➤ Two aspects of sustainability:
● Sustainable/Continuous Service Innovation
● Sustainable/Responsible Service Innovation
➤ Internal and External factors for service innovation
➤ Practical contributions
➤ From the qualitative, multiple case studies of European RTOs
➤ Expected benefits
➤ Validate and refine the model
➤ Valuable insights of sustainable service innovation current practices
within RTOs
➤ Results maybe a source of inspiration for RTOs and other knowledge
intensive organizations
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14. Thank you
Comments and Questions?
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