Title: Stakeholder integration in service innovation - an exploratory case study in the healthcare industry

Authors: Julia M. Jonas; Angela Roth

Addresses: Chair of Information Systems – Innovation and Value Creation, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Lange Gasse 20, 90403 Nuremberg, Germany ' Chair of Information Systems – Innovation and Value Creation, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Lange Gasse 20, 90403 Nuremberg, Germany

Abstract: This paper explores the integration of internal and external stakeholders in service innovation. Building upon the co-creative paradigm, the resource and knowledge integration of stakeholders in dynamic and complex service systems is gaining importance. This case study analyses the practice of stakeholder integration in a service innovation project at a German provider for medical appliances. We show that stakeholder integration is realised in the modes of reactive integration for the majority of stakeholders, whereas mutual integration is realised with members of the organisation, only. Customers are integrated as reactive resources throughout the innovation process, also informally and indirectly. The evidence from this empirical study suggests that stakeholder integration in service systems creates interdependencies between stakeholders and implicates that indirect ways of stakeholder integration have to be taken into account for project and stakeholder management.

Keywords: service innovation; stakeholder integration; indirect integration; integration modes; healthcare services; service systems; case study; co-creation; Germany; medical appliances; customer integration; project management; stakeholder management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2017.082358

International Journal of Technology Management, 2017 Vol.73 No.1/2/3, pp.91 - 113

Received: 02 Aug 2014
Accepted: 04 Mar 2015
Published online: 21 Feb 2017 *

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