Service productivity, quality and innovation : Implications for service‐design practice and research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the intertwining of productivity, quality and innovation in the service domain and, based on that discussion, propose and examine the implications of a service productivity framework that incorporates not only the company's perspective (as is done traditionally) but also the customer's perspective and a typology for classifying service innovations on the basis of their potential impact on productivity from the company's and the customer's perspectives. Design/methodology/approach – The service productivity framework and service innovation typology are developed by synthesizing – and extending – concepts and insights from the relevant literature pertaining to productivity, quality and innovation. Findings – Analysis and discussion of the proposed frameworks lead to the overarching conclusion that strategies to improve service productivity, enhance service quality or implement service innovations, are likely to be suboptimal if pursued in isolation. As such, it is important for companies to consider the inter‐linkages among service productivity, quality and innovation when formulating and implementing strategies pertaining to any of them. Originality/value – The integration of conventional productivity concepts with key insights from the rich literature on service quality is novel. The resulting expanded service productivity framework and service innovation typology have important managerial implications and also offer several potentially fruitful avenues for further research.