Innovation Processes and Structures in Service Triads

In this paper, we undertake an exploratory investigation of how service innovation is achieved in the context of a service triad arrangement. The service triad refers to end customer-service buyer-service supplier arrangements that emerge when a service supplier is contracted by a service buyer to directly fulfill the outsourced services and servicing demands of the service buyer’s end customer. We examine how the processes and structures of service triad innovation endeavors can influence the service supplier’s efforts to design and deliver apt quality services and servicing, as well as enable the realization of value both for and from customers (i.e., service buyer and end customer). Data are collected through multiple-case study of innovation initiatives involving service triads at public universities in The Netherlands. Examination of the multiple-case study data provides exploratory insights that advance scholarly theorization and managerial understanding on the innovation processes and structures in service triads, allowing for the development of testable research propositions relating the processes and structures of service triad innovation, service characteristics, and innovation-based performance.