Purpose

This paper addresses the growing fragmentation between traditional and digital service innovation (DSI) research and offers a unifying metatheoretical framework.

Design/methodology/approach

Grounded in service-dominant (S-D) logic's service ecosystems perspective, this study builds on an institutional and systemic, rather than product-centric and linear, conceptualization of value creation to offer a unifying framework for (digital) service innovation that applies to both physical and digital service provisions.

Findings

This paper questions the commonly perpetuated idea that DSI fundamentally changes the nature of innovation. Instead, it highlights resource liquification—the decoupling of information from the technologies that store, transmit, or process this information—as a distinguishing characteristic of DSI. Liquification, however, does not affect the relational and institutional nature of service innovation, which is always characterized by (1) the emergence of novel outcomes, (2) distributed governance and (3) symbiotic design. Instead, liquification makes these three characteristics more salient.

Originality/value

In presenting a cohesive service innovation framework, this study underscores that all innovation processes are rooted in combinatorial evolution. Here, service-providing actors (re)combine technologies (or more generally, institutions) to adapt their value cocreation practices. This research demonstrates that such (re)combinations exhibit emergence, distributed governance and symbiotic design. While these characteristics may initially seem novel and unique to DSI, it reveals that their fundamental mechanisms are not limited to digital service ecosystems. They are, in fact, integral to service innovation across virtual, physical and blended contexts. The study highlights the importance of exercising caution in assuming that the emergence of novel technologies, including digital technologies, necessitates a concurrent rethinking of the fundamental processes of service innovation.

中文翻译：

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数字服务创新的本质和基本要素

目的

本文解决了传统和数字服务创新（DSI）研究之间日益分散的问题，并提供了一个统一的元理论框架。

设计/方法论/途径

本研究以服务主导（SD）逻辑的服务生态系统视角为基础，建立在制度性和系统性而非以产品为中心和线性的价值创造概念化基础上，为（数字）服务创新提供一个统一的框架，该框架适用于物理和数字服务规定。

发现

本文质疑 DSI 从根本上改变创新本质这一普遍存在的观点。相反，它强调资源液化——信息与存储、传输或处理该信息的技术的分离——作为 DSI 的一个显着特征。然而，流动性并不影响服务创新的关系性和制度性，其特点始终是（1）新成果的出现，（2）分布式治理和（3）共生设计。相反，液化使这三个特征更加突出。

原创性/价值

在提出一个有凝聚力的服务创新框架时，本研究强调所有创新过程都植根于组合进化。在这里，服务提供者（重新）组合技术（或更一般地说，机构）以适应他们的价值共同创造实践。这项研究表明，这种（重新）组合表现出涌现、分布式治理和共生设计。虽然这些特征最初对于 DSI 来说可能显得新颖且独特，但它揭示了它们的基本机制并不限于数字服务生态系统。事实上，它们是跨虚拟、物理和混合环境的服务创新不可或缺的一部分。该研究强调了谨慎假设包括数字技术在内的新技术的出现需要同时重新思考服务创新的基本流程的重要性。