AMA SERVSIG –– International Service Research Conference 2014
The 8th AMA Service Special Interest Group (SERVSIG) conference took place in Thessaloniki, Greece. SERVSIG 2014 "Services Marketing in the New Economic and Social Landscape" was organised by the University of Macedonia. I attended the 3-day conference with the marketing group of the division of Business Administration, Linköping University. I presented a working paper on “Green Service Innovation”, co-authored with Per Frankelius, Mikael Ottoson, Victor Aichagui and Lars Witell.
The starting point is that service innovations are the greenest solutions to the world’s current resources issue. Moreover, green consumers are shifting from product to services (e.g. car-sharing), and companies moved from adding a green perspective to existing services (responsive CSR) to designing entirely new green services based on innovations (strategic CSR). Green companies innovate away from an unsustainable product, and invent a service instead, finding new ways to meet old needs. However, there is a lack of academic consensus on the concept of green service innovation:
- What factors can define the green service innovation?
- What are the distinctive characteristics of green service innovations?
To improve our understanding of the concept of green service innovation, we combine empirical observations (multiple case-studies from Scandinavian companies) and existing theory (marketing literature review). As a result, we develop a framework based on two dimensions:
Service Provision: Direct service, and Indirect service.
Resource Integration: Reusing waste, Reducing ecological impact, and Improving Nature.
These two dimensions help to differentiate 6 types of green service innovations, which can be developed by:
the redistribution of resources,
changing customer behavior,
improving conditions for nature,
upcycling,
the replacement of technology,
and products improving nature.
The presentation went very well and the audience (25-30 attendees) was interactive and interested. As of today, we are still developing this framework. Any suggestion is appreciated.
