Summary of contributions to the special issue
| Authors | Title | Highlights | Sample/method | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theme 1: origins, progress and challenges of DSI | ||||
| Marić et al. (2024) | The origins of digital service innovation (DSI): systematic review of ontology and future research agenda | This study focuses on the concept of DSI as a pivotal aspect of the evolving industrial landscape. It explores the application of digital technologies to create new services and configure value-creation ecosystems, emphasizing the potential for radical digital services to enhance product operations, user experience and drive new innovations. The study also highlights the need for a more comprehensive understanding of DSI and digital servitization, underscoring the fragmented nature of the existing literature and the necessity for further research to elucidate the complexities and future research avenues in this domain | Data: 111 “Business and Management” peer-reviewed articles extracted from the Scopus Database Method: Systematic literature review | Digital service innovation, DSI, digital servitization, servitization and systematic literature review |
| Rabetino et al. (2024) | Digital service innovation (DSI): a multidisciplinary (re)view of its origins and progress using bibliometric and text mining methods | This study delves into the concept of DSI, which revolutionizes the design, delivery, customization and consumption of digitally-enabled service offerings. It emphasizes the transformative role of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), large language models (LLM) and big data analytics in driving DSI. The study highlights the interdisciplinary nature of DSI research, encompassing technological, organizational and human/societal factors and aims to integrate insights from marketing and information systems literature into the digital servitization domain | Data: 123 articles collected from journals 2, 3, 4 and 4* included in the Academic Journal Guide (AJG) Method: Systematic literature review | Digital service innovation, digital servitization, business models, co-creation and ecosystems |
| Burton et al. (2024) | Digital service innovation challenges faced during servitization: a multi-level perspective | This study centers on DSI within the B2B sector, highlighting its distinct role as a technologically-focused form of innovation that enables digital servitization. It identifies and categorizes 28 unique DSI impediment types, mapping them across innovation phases and interaction levels. The study emphasizes the need for further research into overcoming DSI impediments and underscores the significance of viewing DSI from an ecosystem perspective | Data: 39 “Business, Management and Accounting”, “Engineering”, “Economics, Econometrics and Finance” peer-reviewed articles extracted from the Scopus Database Method: Systematic literature review | Digital, service innovation, servitization, digitalization, SLR, ecosystems, interactions,impediments, barriers, challenges and tensions |
| Theme 2: nature and characterization of DSI | ||||
| Vargo et al. (2024) | The nature and fundamental elements of digital service innovation | This study examines DSI in the context of service innovation and digitalization. It addresses the lack of a unified understanding of DSI and the predominant focus on a production-centric approach in existing research. The study emphasizes the collaborative nature of DSI, highlighting the integration of resources. Adopting a service-dominant logic (SDL), it underscores the importance of service for benefiting others. The study also explores the influence of technologies, market dynamics and human experiences on innovation. It identifies three key impacts of digitalization: generating new outcomes, reducing coordination challenges and enabling symbiotic design. These insights are applicable to service innovation across different settings, highlighting the vital role of service as an exchange unit in DSI | Data: Synthesis of existing literature and logical reasoning from a service-dominant logic’s service ecosystems perspective Method: Conceptual and theoretical analysis | Digital service innovation, service ecosystems, emergence, distributed governance and symbiotic design |
| Narvaiza et al. (2024) | Characterizing digital service innovation: phases, actors, functions and interactions in the context of a digital service platform | This study delves into the realm of DSI within the manufacturing context, particularly as part of manufacturers’ servitization efforts. It aims to characterize DSI on Digital Service Platforms (DSPs) and address the fragmented nature of DSI literature. The study seeks to deconstruct the nature of a digital service, explore how DSI occurs on a DSP and identify the phases, actors, functions and interactions shaping the innovation process of a digital service on a DSP. The study aims to provide empirical insights into DSI elements and processes, ultimately contributing to a unified DSI research language in service management and offering a DSI development framework and guide for managers | Data: 8 semi-structured interviews with key representatives of a company Method: Single exploratory case study | Case study, business-to-business, co-innovation, digital service platform, digital service innovation and process DSI |
| Theme 3: learning, alignment and market dynamics of DSI | ||||
| Kowalkowski et al. (2024) | Digital service innovation in B2B markets | This study aims to advance DSI research by focusing on the transformative impact of digital technologies on business-to-business (B2B) industries. It addresses the neglect of digital services in mainstream service innovation literature and the limited focus on service innovation in non-manufacturing B2B contexts. By adopting a technodemarcation view, the study seeks to outline how digital technologies influence the core dimensions of service innovation and identify priorities for research related to these dimensions and new technologies, particularly the disruptive impact of three signature digital technologies (IoT, IA and digital platforms) on B2B markets | Data: Synthesis of existing literature and logical reasoning from a techno-demarcation perspective on service innovation Method: Conceptual and theoretical analysis | B2B, artificial intelligence, innovation, internet of things and service ecosystem |
| Coreynen et al. (2024) | Spiraling between learning and alignment toward digital service innovation | This study delves into the intersection of technological innovation and service innovation, particularly focusing on DSI and its transformation process. It addresses the complexity and challenges associated with the transition toward DSI maturity, emphasizing the need for organizational learning and alignment both within the company and with external actors. The research aims to answer the call of prior studies by exploring the pathways for companies to evolve from a low DSI position to reaching high DSI maturity and how they manage complexity through learning and alignment along the way. By conceptualizing DSI as a specific form of innovation, the study develops a theoretical framework that maps the DSI process and offers theoretical propositions, contributing to a better understanding of the DSI transformation process and its implications for managers | Data: 8 semi-structured interviews with representatives of 3 manufacturing companies Method: longitudinal case study | Digital service innovation, digital transformation, servitization, complexity, learning and alignment |
| Authors | Title | Highlights | Sample/method | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The origins of digital service innovation (DSI): systematic review of ontology and future research agenda | This study focuses on the concept of DSI as a pivotal aspect of the evolving industrial landscape. It explores the application of digital technologies to create new services and configure value-creation ecosystems, emphasizing the potential for radical digital services to enhance product operations, user experience and drive new innovations. The study also highlights the need for a more comprehensive understanding of DSI and digital servitization, underscoring the fragmented nature of the existing literature and the necessity for further research to elucidate the complexities and future research avenues in this domain | Digital service innovation, DSI, digital servitization, servitization and systematic literature review | ||
| Digital service innovation (DSI): a multidisciplinary | This study delves into the concept of DSI, which revolutionizes the design, delivery, customization and consumption of digitally-enabled service offerings. It emphasizes the transformative role of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), large language models (LLM) and big data analytics in driving DSI. The study highlights the interdisciplinary nature of DSI research, encompassing technological, organizational and human/societal factors and aims to integrate insights from marketing and information systems literature into the digital servitization domain | Digital service innovation, digital servitization, business models, co-creation and ecosystems | ||
| Digital service innovation challenges faced during servitization: a multi-level perspective | This study centers on DSI within the B2B sector, highlighting its distinct role as a technologically-focused form of innovation that enables digital servitization. It identifies and categorizes 28 unique DSI impediment types, mapping them across innovation phases and interaction levels. The study emphasizes the need for further research into overcoming DSI impediments and underscores the significance of viewing DSI from an ecosystem perspective | Digital, service innovation, servitization, digitalization, SLR, ecosystems, interactions,impediments, barriers, challenges and tensions | ||
| The nature and fundamental elements of digital service | This study examines DSI in the context of service innovation and digitalization. It addresses the lack of a unified understanding of DSI and the predominant focus on a production-centric approach in existing research. The study emphasizes the collaborative nature of DSI, highlighting the integration of resources. Adopting a service-dominant logic (SDL), it underscores the importance of service for benefiting others. The study also explores the influence of technologies, market dynamics and human experiences on innovation. It identifies three key impacts of digitalization: generating new outcomes, reducing coordination challenges and enabling symbiotic design. These insights are applicable to service innovation across different settings, highlighting the vital role of service as an exchange unit in DSI | Digital service innovation, service ecosystems, emergence, distributed governance and symbiotic design | ||
| Characterizing digital service innovation: phases, actors, functions and interactions in the context of a digital service platform | This study delves into the realm of DSI within the manufacturing context, particularly as part of manufacturers’ servitization efforts. It aims to characterize DSI on Digital Service Platforms (DSPs) and address the fragmented nature of DSI literature. The study seeks to deconstruct the nature of a digital service, explore how DSI occurs on a DSP and identify the phases, actors, functions and interactions shaping the innovation process of a digital service on a DSP. The study aims to provide empirical insights into DSI elements and processes, ultimately contributing to a unified DSI research language in service management and offering a DSI development framework and guide for managers | Case study, business-to-business, co-innovation, digital service platform, digital service innovation and process DSI | ||
| Digital service innovation in B2B markets | This study aims to advance DSI research by focusing on the transformative impact of digital technologies on business-to-business (B2B) industries. It addresses the neglect of digital services in mainstream service innovation literature and the limited focus on service innovation in non-manufacturing B2B contexts. By adopting a technodemarcation view, the study seeks to outline how digital technologies influence the core dimensions of service innovation and identify priorities for research related to these dimensions and new technologies, particularly the disruptive impact of three signature digital technologies (IoT, IA and digital platforms) on B2B markets | B2B, artificial intelligence, innovation, internet of things and service ecosystem | ||
| Spiraling between learning and alignment toward digital service innovation | This study delves into the intersection of technological innovation and service innovation, particularly focusing on DSI and its transformation process. It addresses the complexity and challenges associated with the transition toward DSI maturity, emphasizing the need for organizational learning and alignment both within the company and with external actors. The research aims to answer the call of prior studies by exploring the pathways for companies to evolve from a low DSI position to reaching high DSI maturity and how they manage complexity through learning and alignment along the way. By conceptualizing DSI as a specific form of innovation, the study develops a theoretical framework that maps the DSI process and offers theoretical propositions, contributing to a better understanding of the DSI transformation process and its implications for managers | Digital service innovation, digital transformation, servitization, complexity, learning and alignment | ||
Source(s): Authors' own creation
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