VTT Symposium on Service Innovation

Services are playing an increasingly important role in present society, constituting the major part of economic activities. For several years, VTT has been a central developer of services and, in many sectors, taken the lead in service research in Finland. VTT is also becoming a well-known actor in this area at international level, and it aims to further strengthen its role, highlighting, in particular, the importance of service innovations. The relevance and benefits to Finnish industry and society continue to be the guiding principles in these efforts. In August 2011, VTT organized the second Symposium on Service Innovation to disseminate information about central topics and the recent results of its service research. This symposium was a continuation and extension of the first service symposium organized in 2008. Whereas the first symposium was internal, this time VTT opened its presentations to existing and potential clients and other stakeholders. The aim of the symposium was to draw on ideas from different disciplines and foster fruitful dialog between them. The topics covered the whole service value chain and the spectrum of different types of activities, from the production of 'pure' services to the delivery of product-service offerings for which part of the interest lay in service-enabling technologies. Business-to-business and business-to-consumer services were covered, as well as the private and public sectors. The papers presented in the symposium were grouped under three titles: 1) servitization and deepening of service-dominant logic, 2) customer needs and user-driven service innovation, and 3) new approaches in service research. The material of the symposium has been compiled into this publication.