CSI-rapport Value for partners

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CSI´S VALUE FOR PARTNERS COLLABORATING FOR SERVICE INNOVATION


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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ExEcutivE summary

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introduction

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about this rEport

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activitiEs and EffEcts of csi for knowlEdgE and businEss partnErs

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thE bEginning: partnEr ExpEctations and objEctivEs whEn joining csi

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invEsting timE and Effort: activity lEvEl and participation in csi nEtwork activitiEs and rEsEarch

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incrEasEd focus on sErvicE innovation: EffEcts of participating in csi activitiEs and rEsEarch projEcts

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casE study: customEr carE 2015

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thEory mEEts practicE: rEsEarch quality and coopEration bEtwEEn businEss and knowlEdgE partnErs

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casE study: innovating for trust

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sprEading thE word about sErvicE innovation: communication and dissEmination activitiEs

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casE study: csi in thE wEb – thE virtual is rEal

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casE study: thE norwEgian innovation indEx

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kEy findings and lEarning: crEating valuE through intErdisciplinary collaboration

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about thE sfi schEmE

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about thE cEntEr for sErvicE innovation

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vision and objEctivEs of csi

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about thE csi rEsEarch EnvironmEnt

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about csi activitiEs and achiEvEmEnts

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contact information

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY NHH Center for Service Innovation (CSI) is one of Norway’s 38 centres for researched- based innovation (SFI). The Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) is the host and administrative institution for the research centre. The Center for Service Innovation’s (CSI) vision and objective is to support innovation in service and service organizations through its internationally recognized research and through its collaboration between researchers and commercial partners. This report has been prepared by Corporate Communications for NHH CSI with the purpose of finding and documenting the development, progress and effects of the project. The data has been gathered through a quantitative survey of 23 respondents from partner organizations, asking them about their participation and their perception of the project. Through 13 semistructured interviews with key personnel from the knowledge partners and business partners, the quantitative data from the survey was combined with qualitative input. Furthermore, data on communication activities and effects have been gathered through media analysis and user data from CSI communication channels as to describe the communication and dissemination of information from CSI to the general public throughout the project. Key findings in this report show that CSI has been able to create internationally recognized research and an active collaboration between research and commercial partners as to support innovation in service and service organizations. Over the 8 year project period, CSI has been able to create significant effects for knowledge- and business partners and enhanced the service innovation capabilities of both business and

research partners. CSI has also contributed to improve the commercial success of Norwegian service providers’ service innovation activities and made a strong contribution to measuring companies’ innovativeness as perceived by their customers. In the survey, business partners mainly reported three types of effects from their participation in CSI; new knowledge and decision support, an extended business network and market effects, and insight about research methods and an increased academic network CSI research quality is described by the partners as high quality. With an impressive activity level and significant production of scientific findings, CSI has created internationally recognized research. CSI has delivered over hundred public speeches and given more than a hundred conference paper presentations, and CSI researchers has published their work in 150 journal article publications and 62 article publications in anthologies. Both business partners and knowledge partners describe an interest in applied science, and that one of the most interesting features about CSI has been the interdisciplinary approach combining business practices and scientific methods. However, respondents also recognize the interdisciplinary nature of the project as one of the most challenging parts of working together in CSI. Many respondents believe there is potential for value creation in an improved understanding and increased dialogue between the two types of organizations, as well as an alignment of goals and objectives in the research projects.

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INTRODUCTION

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Research of high quality is recognized by being relevant and interesting and conducted in a rigorous manner. While rigor is embedded in most researchers as part of their PhD training process and polished through the journals’ review process, making something interesting and relevant is harder to achieve. It goes without saying that what is relevant and interesting to an academic is not necessarily relevant or interesting for a practitioner. Finding the balance is challenging! Research Council Norway’s program for researchbased innovation (SFI) is an excellent program that brings academia and the business world together over an extended period of time creating and disseminating research. Since it was established in May 2011, the Center for Service Innovation (CSI) has addressed issues relating to service innovation. It may seem like a paradox that a major research program is required within service innovation in a time where gross domestic product (GDP) in most developed countries is 70 to 80 percent service based. That is, goods manufacturing sector constitute 20 to 30 percent of GDP. Our journey has proved that service innovation is more complicated than goods innovation and that it requires among other things a holistic perspective starting with customer experiences and how this can be designed into the process.

Together with its partners, CSI has gained new research-based insight within four areas: • Business model innovation incl sustainable/green business models • Innovation in organizational culture • Innovation in marketing offer including design thinking • Service innovation economics Numerous KPIs, e.g. books, PhDs & Postdocs, articles, lectures, education programs etc. point to the fact that CSI has become an academic success. However, research only has real value when it can be put to use. To investigate whether CSI’s academic output has been of value to relevant partners, the CSImanagement hired the Norwegian communication consultancy Corporate Communication to investigate the following question: To what extent, if any, has CSI delivered on its vision to partners? It was our belief that an external actor was required in order to ensure a broad and independent investigation of this question. Thus, this report is the result of a thorough process where key informants from CSI partner companies – including those who has later left the partnership – have offered their perspectives on CSI.

Tor W. Andreassen

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ABOUT THIS REPORT

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This report has been prepared by Corporate Communications for NHH Center for Service Innovation (CSI) with the purpose of finding and documenting the development, progress and effects of the project in question. The data has been gathered through a quantitative survey of 23 respondents from partner

organizations, asking them about their participation and their perception of the project. The quantitative survey provides valuable data on which types of effects has been achieved for different types of partner organizations. The survey data is used both directly in this report and indirectly as background for the interview guide for qualitative semi-structured interviews.

FIGURE 1: csi partnErs participating in thE survEy ANSWER

PERCENT

businEss partnEr

26.09

%

knowlEdgE partnEr

56.52

%

othEr

17.39

%

total

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%

Through 13 semi-structured interviews with key personnel from the knowledge partners and business partners, the quantitative data from the survey was combined with qualitative input. Respondents from knowledge partners and business partners were chosen through purposive sampling and invited to participate in interviews. By using open questions based on survey data, information from the interviews complemented and contextualized findings from the survey. In the interviews, respondents provided rich information about their organization´s participation, experiences and effects from the partnership with CSI.

Furthermore, data on communication activities and its effect have been gathered through media analysis and user data from CSI communication channels as to describe the communication and dissemination of information from CSI to the general public throughout the project. Information about CSI and its activities has been gathered from the annual reports from CSI as well as from information materials provided by CSI.

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ACTIVITIES AND EFFECTS OF CSI FOR KNOWLEDGE AND BUSINESS PARTNERS

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Further in this report, the effects and experiences of CSI partners as reported trough the survey and interviews are summarised. In addition to this, success stories and interesting projects are highlighted, illustrating the tangible outcomes from the research and networking activities in CSI.

THE BEGINNING: partnEr ExpEctations and objEctivEs whEn joining csi Through interviews, business- and knowledge partners shared their expectations when joining CSI. Their goals and expectations were categorized as follows: credibility and structured knowledge gathering, gaining access to new tools and methods, and network effects from meeting with academia and other service providers. The business partners expressed that their expectations at the beginning of the project was to gain credibility from the collaboration with an academic environment. They also expressed feeling they could contribute their own knowledge and that their experiences could be of great value to CSI researchers. Many business partners

We saw the telecom industry changing, becoming increasingly customer oriented. Differentiation through branding and customer experiences became important to us, which made CSI very relevant. There was also an interest in strengthening our research abilities. (dagfinn myhrE, tElEnor)

expressed a desire for a more structured approach to their own R&D work through input from CSI and its network. The business partners wanted to learn more about user needs and market demands, and how they could best meet these new requirements in their own markets. They wanted to gain valuable knowledge that could be turned into a useful approach for their own sales and customer facing activities. Using this knowledge to create change internally and develop their own work with customer experiences and gaining new confidence when making strategic decisions for the future, through fact-based decision making.

Back then we only talked about products. It has been a long journey to where we are today, talking about services. The focus on services is much more refined now. The customer journey and our whole vocabulary has developed during this time period. If not a direct effect, it is correlated to the CSI project. (hans-pEtEr daaE, postEn)

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It’s always a potential challenge that business partners need to be commercial right away - and must prioritize methods and time with this in mind. Scientists can to a greater extent be «faithful» to their topic over time.

We see that it is important that those participating on behalf of the partners has the necessary buy-in from their organisation. A single, highly engaged person might move elsewhere. (frøystEin gjEsdal, nhh)

(øystEin bErg, infuturE)

Furthermore, all business partners mentioned they expected network effects and gaining an extended business network from the collaboration. They saw potential for market effects from increased visibility through the partnership, as well as an opportunity to get to know other companies through the network and to collaborate with the business partners. Some of the respondents also expressed an ambition to create spin-off projects together with other business partners with CSI as a platform for this activity. Finally, some of the smaller companies

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expressed an interest in forming relationships with larger service companies that were already part of the CSI network. Expectations from knowledge partners before joining CSI includes an interest in generating new projects, building bridges between science and business as well as increasing the general awareness and understanding of service design and service innovation through interdisciplinary cooperation.


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INVESTING TIME AND EFFORT: activity lEvEl and participation in csi nEtwork activitiEs and rEsEarch Through both the survey and the interviews, all business partners and knowledge partners reported their own activity level throughout the project. All project partners said that the activity level varied over time and depending on the resources available. 12 organizations reported high or very high activity levels, while 13 individuals reported a high or very high personal activity level in CSI activities. An interesting finding was that several of those who reported a moderate or low activity level later mentioned in interviews that “they could have done more under other circumstances”. For this group, main activities include attendance at conferences and seminars arranged by CSI. The same group also reported a lower level of engagement and participation in activities relating to CSI research activities. Respondents with a lower activity level often stated that this was due to “a lack of internal resources” and that they mainly took part in activities to which they were contractually obliged.

I think it came from a wish to be part of a professional cooperation about a topic we had already worked with a lot. This was something more structured and an academic platform we had sought for and which could be useful to our work. We also believed we could contribute from our experience with several service providers engaged in customer experience and service innovation.

Businesses reporting a moderate, high or very high activity level agreed that their activity level had varied over time. In interviews, many respondents described the activity level as an ongoing, even workstream of activities connected to CSI and its network, while participating in research related activity on the side. Those who took part in the Customer Care 2015 survey reported a significantly higher activity level during this period of time, both in network related activities as well as research related activities. Although any significant difference could not be found between smaller and larger business partners in their reported activity level, smaller firms and consultancy firms more often mentioned that they saw “an alternative cost” relating to the time spent on CSI related activities. They reported considering more active participation, but smaller firms explained that they could not prioritise to spend time on work that did not generate revenue. There was also a significantly higher involvement from businesses who had their own internal research/R&D resources in-house, and this group of business partners also reported a higher experienced effect of the partnership. The reported activity level for research and bridging partners varied with time and with the amount of ongoing projects that the partners participated in. For research and bridging partners, involvement of key individuals in research projects directly affected their activity level and involvement in CSI.

(harald krogh, bEkk)

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FIGURE 2: how activE would you say that you and your organisation has bEEn in thE coopEration with csi? vEry high activity lEvEl high activitE lEvEl modEratE activity lEvEl low activity lEvEl

my organisation had a pErsonally i had a 0

2

4

6

8

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What I believe has been key to our success is having dedicated personnel who worked with CSI together with scientists. We are in a position where we have our own resources who can cooperate and enter into partnerships. They made sure we operationalized and bridged the knowledge into Telenor´s operations. We’ve had 3-4 people working almost full-time on this. This high level of engagement on our behalf has reaped effects for us. (dagfinn myhrE, tElEnor)

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INCREASED FOCUS ON SERVICE INNOVATION: EffEcts of participating in csi activitiEs and rEsEarch projEcts In the survey, business partners mainly reported three types of effects from their participation in CSI: • new knowledge and decision support, • an extended business network and market effects, • insight about research methods and an increased academic network All of the surveyed business partners reported that they had gained new knowledge about service innovation, and that the most significant effect on

their business was fact-based decision support. Furthermore, the business partners stated that they had implemented new work methods, either directly due to CSI or partly influenced by CSI initiatives. They also reported having used the information gained in other ways, such as decision making and decision support. Also, some respondents mentioned during interviews that they had made use of the tool-kits and methods developed in CSI projects in their day-to-day work with customers.

FIG 3-5: thE csi rEsEarch EffEct on dEcisions, culturE and dEvElopmEnt figurE 3: thE csi rEsEarch has had EffEct on our dEcisions

figurE 4: thE csi rEsEarch has had EffEct on our organisational culturE

disagrEE

figurE 5: thE csi rEsEarch has had EffEct on our organizational dEvElopmEnt

agrEE

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FIGURE 6: what EffEct would you say that your organisation has ExpEriEncEd bEcausE of thE coopEration with thE nhh for cEntrE for sErvicE innovation? dEscribE how much you agrEE/disagrEE in thE following statEmEnt: csi rEsEarch has had EffEct on our dEcisions

stongly agrEE

agrEE

slightly agrEE

disagrEE

othEr strongly disagrEE

knowlEdgE partnErs businEss partnErs 0

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The second type of effects reported was network effects and increased visibility. The business partners experienced an increased visibility in new markets and forums, as well as business

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opportunities together with other business partners in the network. Many respondents also reported a growing network as an effect in itself.

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FIG 7-9: what nEtwork EffEcts has your organisation ExpEriEncEd from thE coopEration with thE nhh for cEntEr for sErvicE innovation? dEscribE to which dEgrEE you agrEE/disagrEE with thE following statEmEnts figurE 7: nEtworking with csi partnErs has had EffEct on our dEcisions

figurE 8: nEtworking with csi partnErs has had EffEct on our organisational culturE

disagrEE

The third type of effects reported by business partners were the access to academic insight, research methods and an academic network. By getting to know researchers and scientists, digging deeper into topics and themes related to service innovation and by learning more about the scientific methods applied in CSI research,

Building networks and relationships is one of the most important effects, and it has been very inspiring from a scientific point of view. We’ve been part of the consortium, which makes sure we are updated and part of the discussion. They have found a format that works very well. (judith gloppEn, doga)

figurE 9: nEtworking with csi partnErs has had EffEct on our organisational dEvElopmEnt

agrEE

business partners reported that they had gained new insights and an academic reference point for their own business decisions. For knowledge partners, the effects of participation in CSI were described in interviews as “very good” in terms of research results, and the number of published articles and book chapters, as well as degrees produced by graduate and PhD candidates. Many also described a positive effect from the interdisciplinary work in CSI. Another positive and frequently mentioned sideeffect of CSI related activities during the project period was the development of several spin-off projects with partners from the network, such as BIA-projects, books and articles.

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CASE STUDY: customEr carE 2015

Customer Care 2015 (CC2015) was a spin-off project from CSI, that started as a multiyear, cross-industrial and highly interdisciplinary project funded by RCN. CSI partners included Telenor (head), Posten, DNB, Norwegian Design Council, BEKK Consulting, AHO, NHH, CBS and SINTEF. The project’s objective was to investigate how one could secure an efficient and seamless delivery of experiences across manual and digital touch-points, in line with what customers value.

The response on CC2015 have been exclusively positive among all members, including both knowledge and business partners in CSI. A majority of the respondents point to CC2015 as a project that they have willingly contributed to, and a project that they have gained knowledge from. Some respondents also pointed out that CC2015 have helped them establish interdisciplinary collaboration outside the CSI.

By using three different scenarios the CC2015 were able to create a new understanding of factors that can transform the business or create conditions for success in innovation. The scenarios are not predictions, trends or forecasts, but credible, consistent and challenging stories that can make us aware of critical uncertainties relating to future customer contexts, and understanding the balance of organisational and strategic forces.

thE transformation toolkit

The project’s contribution to the area of service innovation is the transition capabilities developed across the industries of telecom, banking and insurance, postal services and logistics – a set of qualities that rests on innovations in organisational capabilities and delivery processes. “Through our participation in Customer Care 2015 (a BIA of CSI), we have had great support from academic and business partners, bringing improvements to our most important customer journey, so we will be able to meet future customer expectations and tougher competition”. (Hanne Cook & Olaug Hantveit, CSI Annual report 2014)

The Transformation Toolkit was a spin-off based on research form the CC2015 and the facilitation of the journeys in DNB BANK, Posten Norge and Telenor ASA from 2012- 20105. The goal was to get an answer to how businesses can deliver excellent service experience to customers in the future and how to make the transformation to digital touchpoints. The Transformation Toolkit is a set of tools that can help businesses develop as well as finding barriers concerning corporate culture, incentive- and KPI-systems, as to be able to deliver the experience that customers expect in the future.

Back then we only talked about products. It has been a long journey to where we are today, talking about services. The focus on services is much more refined now. The customer journey and our whole vocabulary has developed during this time period. If not a direct effect, it is correlated to the CSI project. (hans-pEtEr daaE, postEn)

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THEORY MEETS PRACTICE: rEsEarch quality and coopEration bEtwEEn businEss and knowlEdgE partnErs When asked about research quality, a significant number of respondents describe CSI research as “high quality” or “very high quality”. Both business partners and knowledge partners describe an interest in applied science, and that one of the most interesting features about CSI is the interdisciplinary approach combining business practices and scientific methods. However, respondents also mentioned the interdisciplinary nature of the project as one of the most challenging parts of working together in CSI. According to the descriptions given in interviews by respondents from business partners, the research topics in CSI are perceived as relevant to the business partners, but the research methods and findings are often seen as less relevant in a business context. Many of the business partners described this as differences in style, ways of working and due to differing objectives in terms of outcomes from the final project. In general, what may seem relevant and interesting to business partners may always align with what gives

scientific credibility and publication points. When asked about potential for future improvements, some business partners requested more applied knowledge and the possibility to test and apply the knowledge from scientists in business sooner rather than later. The need for business agility sometimes clashes with the scientific interest in valid and methodologically thorough investigation of the research topics. Many also says that the potential for more applied research lies in this intersection between academic and commercial interests, and that this potential can be further explored in the future. Respondents from knowledge partners also described the research conducted under CSI as serious, high quality and relevant. Some also commented on the amount of research and that a high activity level throughout the project period. However, many also point to challenges such as getting articles published in higher ranking journals while maintaining relevance to the participating business partners.

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CASE STUDY: innovating for trust

Edward Elgar Publishing gave out the CSI-book “Innovating for Trust” in 2017. The book summarizes CSI’s unique experience and approach to service innovation. The book is a result of five years of CSI-research on large service organizations innovation efforts and provide the syntheses of learning. In the book, CSI researchers respond to the fundamental goal for any firm to maintain and enhance customer relationships based on trust. The book launch was hosted by CSI partner DOGA and about 80 people took part in the event. “Innovating for Trust” addresses exceptionally important aspects of innovation and adoption that are all too often ignored: the riskiness of both. They are risks that can only be ameliorated by trust - shared, relational and institutionalized understandings. The authors and editors address and adroitly stitch together considerations of the diverse aspects of interactions that are simultaneously influenced by and influence trust in a manner that is accessible and usable by researchers and practitioners alike. I highly recommend it for both, wrote Stephen L. Vargo, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, US in his review of the book.

Many of the partners have also written their own chapters in the book. More specifically the book contributors have been: T.W. Andreassen (NHH), K. Bentsen (University College of Southeast Norway) , J. Blomkvist (Linköping University), D. Chasanidou (SINTEF), S. Clatworthy (The Oslo School of Architecture and Design), M. Filho (The Oslo School of Architecture and Design), A. Fjuk (Telenor), A. Følstad (SINTEF), J. Gloppen (DOGA), D. Grönquist (EVRY), R. Halvorsrud (SINTEF), W. Haukedal (NHH), T. Hillestad (NHH), M.T. Hossain (NHH), S. Jørgensen (NHH), A. Karahasanovic (SINTEF), T. Kobbeltvedt (NHH), P. Kristensson (NHH), S. Kurtmollaiev (NHH), K. Kvale (Telenor), L. Lervik-Olsen (NHH), M. Lüders (UiO), H. Nysveen (NHH), P.E. Pedersen (NHH), T. Saebi (NHH), S.E.R. Skard (NHH), B.A. Solem(University College of Southeast Norway), C. Tepfers (InFuture), H. Thorbjørnsen (NHH), L.J. Tynes Pedersen (NHH), B. Yttri (Telenor).

The book is particularly great because it was able to convey the research in a way that felt more fit for business needs and wishes. I am of the opinion that dialogue between the researcher and the business when it comes to making sure research questions are relevant to both parties is quite essential. (daniEl grönquist, Evry)

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SPREADING THE WORD ABOUT SERVICE INNOVATION: communication and dissEmination activitiEs

Since the start-up of the project in 2011, CSI Managing Director Tor W. Andreassen and his predecessors has frequently been featured in national and regional news media, including

Dagens Næringsliv, Bergens Tidende, Aftenposten, NRK TV, TV2 and NRK Radio. The level of media attention has gradually increased over time.

FIGURE 10: mEdia covEragE during thE projEct pEriod (2011-2018) 200 150 100 50 26

0 2012

2013

101 2014

137 2015

The main communication objective has been to position CSI as Norway's number one research environment on value creation and growth in Norwegian businesses, and particularly in the service sector. Although the CSI over time has focused their attention and become more strategic about which types of media attention to pursue, the media attention has in fact increased. According to news media and the public attention, the relevance of CSI continued to rise during 2018 and have already surpassed the publicity numbers from 2017 with over 50 articles. A lot of the publicity growth is due to the Norwegian Innovation Index (NII). Approximately half of the 2018 media attention was given in context of NII, which also saw an increased media interest and which doubled the number of mentions in news media compared to 2017 numbers.

164 2016

158 2017

208 2018

2019

Since 2013, CSI Managing Director has regularly distributed the newsletter “Food for Thoughts”, as well as Summer and Autumn Letters to all CSI partners. The CSI management group started developing and distributing quarterly newsletters last year. CSI has held lectures and presentations on many different business-, political- and academic arenas in recent years. CSI has held an annual Research Seminar since 2013, with global outreach as a main objective. In addition to this, smaller internal seminars have been held for CSI partners as to stimulate increased cooperation internally among partner organizations. CSI has also frequently hosted Brown Bag seminars with the main focus on sharing, developing and providing updates on the ongoing research at CSI.

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CASE STUDY: csi in thE wEb – thE virtual is rEal

CSI actively use three social media platforms: blog, Twitter and Facebook. The CSI blog is CSI´s “oldest” communication tool and has existed since September 2009. In January 2017, the blog was incorporated into the new CSI website nhh.no/csi, which launched January 2017. The new CSI home page has been visited 20 548 times since its first year (2017) and viewed more than 43 756 times. The site has readers from all over the world – about 50% from Norway, 25% from the US, readers also come from the UK, Sweden, Germany and other countries. Apart from the CSI website, there is also an increased interest in the Norwegian Innovation Index’s web page.

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The CSI Twitter account (@CSI_NHH) reopened in November 2013, and currently has about 600 followers. The tweets inform about blog up dates, activities of CSI researchers and partners, and news from the innovation world. In addition, all business partners and many CSI researchers have their own Twitter accounts. The CSI Facebook account launched in May 2013. The Facebook page has been used for posting news and photos from various CSI events, such as meetings and seminars. The page currently has about 400 followers and works as an informal communication channel.


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CASE STUDY: thE norwEgian innovation indEx

The Norwegian Innovation Index (NII) is a customer ranking of the innovative ability of Norwegian enterprises. The NII is the first national ranking of important industries and companies’ innovative ability where customers make up the jury. Businesses are ranked by feedback from about 20.000 customers of 79 companies in 20+ industries.

The Norwegian innovation index (NII) has given CSI a lot of media attention in recent years and has contributed to a better understanding of what service innovation is, and with a particular focus on the public, politicians and other business that has not yet been working with service innovation. This accounts for half of the media attention given to CSI in 2018.

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KEY FINDINGS AND LEARNING

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crEating valuE through intErdisciplinary collaboration

Key findings in this report show that CSI has been able to create internationally recognized research and an active collaboration between research and commercial partners as to support innovation in service and service organizations. Over the 8 year project period, CSI has been able to create significant effects for knowledge- and business partners and have enhanced the service innovation capabilities of both business and research partners. CSI has also (at least to some extent) contributed to improve the commercial success of Norwegian service providers’ service innovation activities and made a strong contribution to measuring companies’ innovativeness as perceived by their customers. The findings from the quantitative survey show that CSI activities has affected business activities, work methods and decision making. Interviews show that business partners have experienced increased knowledge about service innovation and that they have increased their capabilities in this field throughout the project period. The experienced effects for business partners and knowledge partners vary over time. The different types of organizations experience different types and degrees of effects. As expected, business partners report the highest degree of effects on their organization, network and practices. As expected, knowledge partners report that they mainly have seen an effect on research activities and publication points. Another key finding is that the activity level of business partners affects their experienced effect. The most active business partners to a larger extent agree that the CSI activities and research have given the desired outcomes and effects on their organization and business. Effects are also affected by who and how many people from the business that are involved in CSI. Business partners that has an internal research function or

R&D organisation reports higher activity levels and participation in CSI activities and has been able to gain greater effects from the cooperation with CSI researchers compared to those who report a lower activity level. In terms of improving commercial success for partners, business partners expected applied and actionable research findings with a commercial edge. This has to some degree been fulfilled, but an even larger effect on commercial success has been achieved through network effects, collaboration projects and spinoff projects together with CSI partners. Frequently mentioned are also the positive effects of collaborating with an institution like NHH as its researchers provide academic credibility, integrity and new knowledge. Finally, a key takeaway from survey and interview findings is the potential for future improvements in terms of collaboration and project design. Differing objectives and work styles affect the collaboration and the ability to achieve the desired effects for business partners. There is a shared ambition between the two types of partners in wanting to gather new knowledge and seek out new tools and methods for applied service innovation practices. However, there is room for improvement in future projects. This is also a key learning from respondents in the interviews; they see that there is potential for improved collaboration between business and academia and that these improvements may in turn increase effects of taking part in collaborative projects at the intersection between business and science. Many respondents believe there is potential for value creation in an improved understanding and increased dialogue between the two types of organizations, as well as an alignment of goals and objectives in the research projects.

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ABOUT THE SFI SCHEME

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The Centres for Research-based Innovation (SFI) scheme promotes innovation by supporting longterm research through close cooperation between R&D intensive companies and prominent research institutions.

objEctivEs The main objective for SFI is to enhance the capability of the business sector to innovate by focusing on long-term research based on forging close alliances between research-intensive enterprises and prominent research groups. The SFI scheme will: • Encourage enterprises to innovate by placing stronger emphasis on long-term research and by making it attractive for enterprises that work on the international arena to establish R&D activities in Norway. • Facilitate active alliances between innovative enterprises and prominent research groups. • Promote the development of industrially oriented research groups that are on the cutting edge of international research and are part of strong international networks. • Stimulate researcher training in fields of importance to the business community, and encourage the transfer of research-based knowledge and technology.

host institution and partnErs The host institution for a centre can be a university, a university college or a research institute. The host institution should have a strong reputation within the disciplines or industrial areas the centre addresses. The host institution's administration must make a declaration of intent stating that it will undertake the obligations entailed by hosting, and explain how the SFI's research will fit into the host institution's research strategy. The partners (enterprises, public organisations and other research institutions) must contribute to the centre in the form of funding, facilities, competence and their own efforts throughout the life cycle of the centre. User partners must point out the commercial potential they envisage resulting from the centre's activities.1

1 Source: Forskningsrådet (2008): «About the SFI Scheme»

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ABOUT THE CENTER FOR SERVICE INNOVATION

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CSI is one of Norway’s 38 centres for researchedbased innovation (sentre for forskningsdrevet innovasjon, SFI), and is funded by the Norwegian Research Council (RCN). The total CSI budget is 164 million NOK over 8 years, with 80 million of these granted by RCN. The Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - in collaboration with its contract research unit Centre for applied research at NHH (SNF)- is the host and administrative institution for the research centre. Additional research partners include SINTEF and Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO).

centre (Telenor, Posten, EVRY and NorgesGruppen) are all leading communication, financial, and logistics service providing partners in Norway, with international expansion through service innovation. Norwayś second largest municipality by population, Bergen Municipality, also participates as a business partner. BEKK, inFuture, Induct and LiveWork participates as business knowledge partners, specializing in innovation process management and ICT-supported service innovation. Virke, Abelia and Design and Architecture Norway participate as bridging partners.

Two international institutions participate as cooperating partners: Karlstad University (KAU) and Copenhagen Business School (CBS). Four of the Norwegian business partners involved in the

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VISION AND OBJECTIVES OF CSI The Center for Service Innovation’s (CSI) vision and objective is to support innovation in service and service organizations through its internationally recognized research and through its collaboration between researchers and commercial partners.

The main activities contributing to CSI’s ability to achieve this objective are research, research dissemination, education, as well as partner networking.

csi aims to:

1. Business model innovation 2. Managing and organizing for service innovation and transformation 3. Service design thinking and customer experience 4. Service innovation economics

• enhance the service innovation capabilities of both businesses and research partners • improve the commercial success of Norwegian service providers’ service innovation activities, • measure firms’ innovativeness as perceived by their customers

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csi rEsEarch is catEgorizEd by four topics:


C S I ´ S VA LU E F O R PA R T N E R S

ABOUT THE CSI RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT CSI is unique in its inclusion of large service providers, business knowledge partners, research institutions, and bridging partners into its research environment. This allows for deeper studies of innovation in the service sector. Based on the innovation challenges presented in the introduction, CSI is focusing its research through “Insight driven service design and innovation” within four main research themes: business model innovation, managing and organizing for service innovation and transformation, service

design thinking and customer experience and service innovation economics. With increased use of technology more data can be captured from production and customers. But data has meaning only when one can enhance their value to insight an insight that will be employed within four areas: business model innovation, organizational innovation, market offer innovation, and financial aspects associated with innovations.

1

2

BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION

MANAGING AND ORGANIZING FOR SERVICE INNOVATION AND TRANSFORMATION

3

4

SERVICE DESIGN THINKING AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

SERVICE INNOVATION ECONOMICS

CSI conceptual model

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THEME 1:

THEME 3:

businEss modEl innovation

sErvicE dEsign thinking and customEr ExpEriEncE

CSI will develop smart, service oriented business models to solve problems related to energy waste, pollution, inefficiency and social responsibility. CSI will also study empirical antecedents of business model choices, the interrelationships of business model dimensions and how business model choices affect performance under various contingencies, including contingencies of service specific elements.

THEME 2:

Design thinking applied to services is consider an increasingly powerful approach for innovation, covering not only the process of developing a new service or product, but the whole way of approaching a firm’s delivery of customer value added. Competitive advantage can be enhanced through service, i.e. the application of specialized competences (knowledge and skills), through processes, and performances for the benefit of customer experience.

THEME 4:

managing and sErvicE organizing for innovation sErvicE innovation Economics and transformation CSI will address the importance and potential of organizational culture and transformation in building innovative organizations. The theme emphasize how strategically relevant cultures may represent sources of competitive advantages for service providers, and how corporations should bring about strategic change. In this theme CSI also explore design thinking as an innovative approach towards change management and to build and nurture change capacity in modern service providers.

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The purpose of this research theme is to establish mechanisms to measure financial return on service innovation. The core delivery is a practical model capable of estimating, predicting and optimizing the effects of service innovation investments.


C S I ´ S VA LU E F O R PA R T N E R S

ABOUT CSI ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS CSI is more than just a workplace where data and numbers are arranged into research, it is an arena where a wide range of activities take place in order to create new and valuable knowledge, but creating knowledge in itself is no enough. The scientific findings must reach people and businesses in order to inspire change and create value. As described, CSI aims to enhance the service innovation capabilities of its business and research partners, improve the commercial success of Norwegian service providers’ service innovation activities and measure Norway’s

service innovation capability. To achieve these objectives the knowledge and research conducted by CSI researchers needs to be disseminated and spread to the Norwegian service sector. CSI therefore has a continuous focused on reaching out with our knowledge. In order to do so, CSI has delivered over hundred public speeches and given more than a hundred conference paper presentations. CSI researchers has also published their work in 150 journal article publications and 62 article publications in anthologies. The most notable journal publications include:

- Jonsson, A. and [KN1] Foss, N. (2011): International expansion through flexible replication: Learning from the internationalization experience of IKEA, 42, 1079-1102. Journal of International Business Studies. ISSN 0047-2506. - Foss, N., Laursen, K. and Pedersen, T. (2011): Linking customer interaction and innovation: The mediatingrole of new organizational practices', Organization Sience, 22(4). ISSN 1047-7039. - Troye, S.V. and Supphellen, M. (2012): Consumer Participation in Coproduction: "I Made it Myself" Effect on consumers' Sensory Perceptions and Evaluations of Outcome and Input Product. Journal of Markting, Volume 76, No 2, March 2012. - Laursen, K., Masciarelli, F. & Prencipe, A. (2012): Trapped or spurred by the home region? The effects of potential social capital on involvement in foreign markets for goods and technology, Journal of International Business Studies, online publication 15 November 2012. - Laursen, K., D'Augustino, L.M.D. & Santangelo, G.D. (2013): The impact of R&D offshoring on the home knowledge production of OECD investing regions, Journal of Economic Geography, vol. 13, pp. 145-175. - Laursen, K. and A. Salter (2014), 'The Paradox of Openness: Appropriability, External Search and Collaboration', Research Policy. Vol. 43(5), pp. 867-878. - Linda Hollebeek, Rajendra K. Srivastava and Tom Chen (2016): S-D logic–informed customer engagement: integrative framework, revised fundamental propositions, and application to CRM. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 1-25.

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- Thorbjørnsen, H., Dahlen M. and Lee Y. H. (2016) The Effect of New Product Preannouncements on the Evaluation of Other Brand Products. Journal of Product Innovation Management, volume 33, Issue 3, pages 342-355, May 2016. - Kurtmollaiev, S., Fjuk, A., Clatworthy, S., Kvale, K., Pedersen, P.E. (2016): Transiting into servicedominant logic through service design: The institutional logics perspective. Accepted at the Journal of Service Research. - Kurtmollaiev, S., Fjuk, A., Kvale, K., and Pedersen, P. E. (2016): Developing managerial dynamic capabilities: A quasi-experimental field study of the effects of a design thinking training program. Conditionally accepted at the Academy of Management Learning & Education. - Foss, N., Saebi T. (2017): Fifteen Years of Research on Business Model Innovation. Journal of Management, Vol 43, Issue 1. pp 200-227. - Tor W. Andreassen, Rutger van Oest and Line Lervik-Olsen (2017): "Customer Inconvenience and Price Compensation: A Multi-Period Approach to Labor-Automation Trade-offs in Services" . Journal of Service Research, vol 21, issue 2, 2018. - Sjåstad, H., Baumeister, R.F. (2018): The Future and the Will: Planning requires self-control, and ego depletion leads to planning aversion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Vol 76, pp 127-141. - Saebi, T., Foss, N.J., and Linder, S. (2018): Social Entrepreneurship: Past Research and Future Promieses. Journal of Management. CSI has written and published 21 books that aim to provide both scholars and businesses attain new knowledge about service innovation. Among the most notable of these books we find: - Jørgensen, S.; Pedersen, L. J. T. (2013): Ansvarlig og lønnsom: Strategier for ansvarlige forretningsmodeller. Cappelen Damm Akademisk 2013 (ISBN 978-82-02-39475-2). - Thorbjørnsen, H. and Troye S. V. (2014): Verdibasert forventningsledelse. Fagbokforlaget 2014, ISBN 978-82-450-1259-0. - Foss, N.J., Saebi, T. (2015) (eds). 2015. Business Model Innovation: The Organizational Dimension. Oxford: Oxford University Press. - Tor W. Andreassen and Line L. Olsen: Service og Innovasjon, Fagbokforlaget 2015, ISBN 978-82450-1506-5. - Innovating for Trust. Edited by Marika Lüders, University of Oslo, Tor W. Andreassen, NHH Norwegian School of Economics, Simon Clatworthy, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design and Tore Hillestad, NHH Norwegian School of Economics, Norway (2017): Innovation for Trust. Edward Elgar publishing, ISBN: 978 1 78536 947 6. 32


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- Gramstad, C.,Helland, S., Saebi, T. (2017) (eds. ) Nye forretningsmodeller i handelen: innovasjon for en bærekraftig fremtid. Universitetsforlaget 2017 ISBN 978-82-15-02847-7. - Jørgensen, S. and Pedersen, L.J.T. (2017). RESTART: 7 veier til bærekraftig business. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk. I addition to spreading the word about service innovation research, CSI has also contributed to new knowledge by bringing in new bright minds on our projects. By the end of 2019 CSI will have financed å total of 10 new PhDs, six postdoctoral positions and provided guidance to eight other PhD-students. Adding to this also comes master’s students who has received guidance from CSI when writing their masterś thesis. For its contributions to new ground-breaking knowledge CSI has received many awards. Among the most notable awards: - Top 10 most cited papers according to Scopus, for the Andreassen, Lervik-Olsen, and Calabretta (2015) article, “Trend spotting and service innovation”. - The Outstanding Paper of the Year award, for the Ragnhild Halvorsrud and Asbjorn Folstad (both from Sintef ), and Knut Kvale (from Telenor) article “Improving service quality through customer journey analysis”. - NHH’s Research Dissemination Award 2017, was awarded to Tor Wallin Andreassen for his active dissemination efforts in the fields of innovation, marketing and the sharing economy. - The Best Practitioner Paper Award was won by Telenor and authored by: Elena Menichelli, Kenth Engø-Monsen, Asbjørn Følstad, Jarle Hildrum, Knut Kvale, Socrates Mokkas for the paper “Combining different sources of customer and service information to better understand customer likelihood to recommend and churn”. - The best practitioner paper/presentation award at the IBM Frontiers in Services conference in San Jose, California, was awarded to Annita Fjuk and Simon Clatworthy for the paper presentation; “Change by Design: Transforming organisational mindsets through Service Design thinking”. - The article “Harnessing the creative potential among users” co-authored by CSI-reseacher Professor Per Kristensson at CTF, has been appointed an “Innovation Classic” by the highly ranked scientific journal, Journal of Product Innovation Management. In addition to these achievements, CSI was considered Excellent (5) by the SAMEVAL-report, the Evaluation of the Social Sciences in Norway

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xxxTRANSFORMATION TOOLKIT

xxThe NHH masterstudents Astrid Sky and Even Meek Olsen won the 2013 award Best thesis of the year at the Departenent of Strategy and Management, NHH.

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xInnovating for Trust


C S I ´ S VA LU E F O R PA R T N E R S

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nhh norwegian sc helleveien 30 tel: +47 55 95 90


chool of Economics | 5045 bergen 0 00 | csi.nhh.no


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