Recombining Operant Resources: Integrating Service Design and Service Engineering to Improve Service Innovation

Abstract

Service design and service engineering are being positioned as facilitators for service innovation, yet the research on these fields is siloed. This conceptual paper proposes integrating service design and service engineering through service-dominant logic and suggests potential positive outcomes for service innovation from this integration. Service design and service engineering are framed as interconnected operant resources for service innovation, using service-dominant logic. Based on the framing, this integration facilitates service innovation by recombining service design and service engineering as resources at three different resource levels. The study contributes to the literature by providing a new conceptualization and an integration framework, which can be applied to recombine service design and service engineering as resources, leading to new service innovations.