Title: Factors of successful innovation in services

Authors: Marko Ropret; Peter Fatur; Karmen Rodman; Borut Likar

Addresses: Department of Innovation and Technology Management, Faculty of Management, University of Primorska, Cankarjeva 5, 6000 Koper, Slovenia. ' Department of Innovation and Technology Management, Faculty of Management, University of Primorska, Cankarjeva 5, 6000 Koper, Slovenia. ' Department of Marketing and International Business, Faculty of Management, University of Primorska, Cankarjeva 5, 6000 Koper, Slovenia. ' Department of Innovation and Technology Management, Faculty of Management, University of Primorska, Cankarjeva 5, 6000 Koper, Slovenia

Abstract: The objective of the research was to identify innovation factors influencing the performance of service companies. The study encompassed 87 Slovenian companies. The statistical analysis was performed in three phases. The first phase encompassed a principal component analysis, during which five potentially influential input and two output innovation factors were extracted. The second phase consisted of descriptive statistics, thus providing insights into the state of innovativeness in the service sector. Regression analysis followed in the final phase. The results of regression analysis identified the factor of innovation and market policy and the factor comparison with competition as influential on the average total benefit of the company from innovations. Interestingly, both factors reveal an innovation |follower| pattern in services, thus indicating that stronger company|s own incentives may be required for a breakthrough innovation.

Keywords: service innovation; services; service management; benchmarking; R&D; research and development; analysis; Slovenia; principal component analysis; PCA; innovation policy; market policy; breakthrough innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2011.044358

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2011 Vol.16 No.3/4, pp.243 - 261

Published online: 21 Feb 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article