A bibliometric review of service innovation: Constituting research themes

Abstract

Service innovation has been seen as a significant source of competitive advantage between the market and the business since its inception over two decades ago. Due to the growing interest in service innovation, this study delves deeper into the service innovation phenomenon to understand how service innovation has emerged and provides a comprehensive view of the phenomenon development of service innovation. A review of a systematic investigation of the evolution of “service innovation” in various sectors by conducting a comprehensive analysis (qualitative and quantitative) using 850 publications from the Web of Science was published during the 1996 - 2022 period. The quantitative method used was bibliometrics analysis (citation and co-citation) by VOS-viewer software. The results show that five clusters are distinguishable. Each cluster shows different characteristics of the service innovation sector, including innovation in market-oriented service companies, new service development, service innovation process, adding service value in manufacturing enterprises, and co-creator of value in services. Specifically, we analyse which research flows are relevant to service innovation and compare these themes over time. In-depth analysis and discussion of the five themes have helped to uncover two more sub-themes, service innovation and service innovation in brand engagement that scholars have been interested in and have developed. This paper supports the assertion that service innovation has an interdisciplinary theoretical foundation and that the structure of the service innovation research platform has changed significantly over time.