Written by some of the most distinguished authors in the field, this book elucidates the critical and complex relationships between services, production and innovation. The authors discuss the limitations of current theories to explain service productivity and innovation, and call for a conceptual re-working of the ways in which these are measured. They also highlight the important role of knowledge in the production system and in doing so make an important contribution to a key debate which has emerged in the social sciences in recent years.

Service organizations are grappling with unprecedented challenges in maintaining and enhancing productivity. As the landscape evolves, traditional approaches to service operations become obsolete, necessitating a deep understanding of the intricate dynamics at play. Innovative Technologies for Increasing Service Productivity delves into this urgent issue, offering a comprehensive exploration of the trends and challenges confronting service industries. The book sheds light on the impact of digital transformation, emerging technologies, and disruptive business models, serving as a guide for navigating the complexities of service productivity in an ever-changing environment. As a groundbreaking solution, this book not only identifies challenges but provides various solutions for service organizations to thrive amidst technological disruption. Its unique selling points lie in the breadth of its coverage, spanning diverse service industries and dissecting the symbiotic relationship between technology and productivity. Offering practical strategies and tools, the book equips service professionals with the means to enhance productivity, quality, and customer experience. By connecting the gap between theoretical insights and practical implementation, it stands as a valuable resource for academics, researchers, and service managers seeking innovative solutions to the evolving landscape of service productivity.

This report shows that policies can be adapted to stimulate innovation and boost productivity in service sectors, with economy-wide benefits for employment and growth.

First published in 2000. Over the past two decades, the service sector have increased dramatically and now occupy the largest share of the economy of advanced industrial societies. Certain business services are regularly cited as evidence for the emergence of a "knowledge economy". In this pioneering book, leading researchers in the fields of service industries and innovation studies investigate the reasons for the growth of the service sectors and this emergent knowledge economy. Drawing on material as diverse as macroeconomic statistics and firm-level case studies, the contributors demonstrate that services are often important innovators in their own right, as well as contributing to innovation and economic performance in their user industries. The question of how far services are special cases, and what specific processes and trajectories characterize their innovative activity is treated systematically. Additionally, a variety of original analyses and information resources are presented. This book should be of value to the student of the modern industrial society, to those seeking to forge policies appropriate to the new context of economic development, and to researchers who are confronting the challenges of the knowledge economy.

Well-timed and targeted innovation boosts productivity, increases economic growth and helps solve societal problems. But how can governments encourage more people to innovate more of the time? And how can government itself be more innovative? The OECD Innovation Strategy provides a set of principles to spur innovation in people, firms and government. It takes an in-depth look at the scope of innovation and how it is changing, as well as where and how it is occurring, based on updated research and data.

In a world moving towards services, driving service productivity is a central challenge for leaders and members of all types of organisations: for service businesses there is a clear need to be “productive”, but it is far less clear what this exactly means. In this book, we invite you on a journey that explores the ways, tools and options for driving service productivity. We take an innovator’s perspectives and look at the tricky challenge of service productivity as a landscape of options for designing the future of services. Case examples, from the airport, hotel, healthcare, and professional service industry, offer insights in the methods used and approaches taken in business practice. Research results provide food for thought and valuable advice on the path towards superior service productivity. Throughout the book we also listen to the views and advices of interviewed experts from academia as well as business practice on how to drive service productivity. A forecast on how service productivity and service innovation might evolve in the future provides us – and hopefully you as a reader – with the necessary food for thought to develop our own understanding of driving service productivity in different business settings. Overall, this book is not a traditional “academic product” that summarises the views of a few, but a co-created offering that profited enormously from the contributions of so many.

This book presents the main results of the OECD Innovation Microdata Project -- the first large-scale effort to exploit firm-level data from innovation surveys across 20 countries in an internationally harmonised way, with a view to addressing common analytical questions.