Exploring front-line employee contributions to service innovation

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to study front-line employees’ contribution to service innovation, when they contribute and how they are involved in service innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on a multiple-case study on service innovation in four organizations with extensive front-line employee involvement. The main data collection methods are interviews and observations.

Findings

The paper suggests that front-line employees contribute customer knowledge, product knowledge and practice knowledge during five phases of the service innovation process – project formation, idea generation, service design, testing and implementation – and that front-line employee involvement ranges from active to passive.

Research limitations/implications

Statistical generalization of the results is needed.

Practical implications

The paper reveals that early and active front-line employee involvement in the service innovation process creates conditions for a positive contribution to service innovation.

Originality/value

The paper suggests that early and active knowledge contributions by front-line employees to the service innovation process are associated with the creation of attractive value propositions.

Citation

Karlsson, J. and Skålén, P. (2015), "Exploring front-line employee contributions to service innovation", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49 No. 9/10, pp. 1346-1365. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-10-2012-0568