The purpose of this paper is to present the integrated innovation maturity model (I2MM). The model was developed to evaluate innovation capabilities of companies using their innovation process and its flexibility towards changes of markets and the company's business environment as basis for assessment. Innovation processes have different impacts on projects through all phases of value creation. Yet, most of these processes are not adapted to early phases of idea management. The requirements engineering integrated innovation process (REI2P) highlights the early phases and underlines the importance of systematically integrating customer requirements into the innovation process. Based on REI2P, the I2MM is structured into four process areas: (1) ideation and product development, (2) innovation management, (3) requirements engineering, and (4) quality management. I2MM is a lean approach that fosters quality of systematic innovations and can perfectly be adjusted to meet the needs of large corporations and small and medium sized enterprises (SME) as well. I2MM was developed by the authors in the joint research project ISPYROM, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).

Whilst innovation remains of course an approach, a process, and is still often even reduced to a set of results, it essentially reflects a way of thinking evolution. Time is up for varying the thinking methods according to capacities and learned and available competencies with a view to change... the thinking level. No domain and no sector is immune to this transformation in todays’ world Having clarified our ideas through this book, we remain ever more convinced that the leveled maturity approach will lead to real advances in innovation over the 2020 years. Hence the competitive capacities of organizations must evolve. As we strive in our quest for new inspiration sources in business, let us reckon that all is bound to evolving... including the way to evolve. In that resides the very capacity to innovate.

Innovation contributes to corporate competitiveness, economic performance and environmental sustainability. In the Internet era, innovation intelligence is transferred across borders and languages at an unprecedented rate, yet the ability to benefit from it seems to become more divergent among different corporations and countries. How much an organization can benefit from innovation largely depends on how well innovation is managed in it. Thus, there is a discernible increase in interest in the study of innovation management. This handbook provides a comprehensive guide to this subject. The handbook introduces the basic framework of innovation and innovation management. It also presents innovation management from the perspectives of strategy, organization and resource, as well as institution and culture. The book’s comprehensive coverage on all areas of innovation management makes this a very useful reference for anyone interested in the subject.

Service science constitutes an interdisciplinary approach to systematic innovation in service systems, integrating managerial, social, legal, and engineering aspects to address the theoretical and practical challenges of the services industry and its economy. This book contains the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Exploring Services Science (IESS), held in Porto, Portugal, in February 2013. This year, the conference theme was Enhancing Service System Fundamentals and Experiences, chosen to address the current need to explore enhanced methods, approaches, and techniques for a more sustainable and comprehensive economy and society. The 19 full and 9 short papers accepted for IESS were selected from 78 submissions and presented ideas and results related to innovation, services discovery, services engineering, and services management, as well as the application of services in information technology, business, healthcare, and transportation.