MOBILE SERVICE CO-INNOVATION AND SERVICE PERFORMANCE: A SERVICE-DOMINANT LOGIC PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT We explore how companies’ competences (operant resources) can help develop mobile service co-innovation (MSC) and the extent to which MSC can influence innovation performance. Using a Service-Dominant Logic (S-D logic) perspective, we conducted an empirical study of four industries: medical, financial, software, and logistics. Self-administered questionnaires were adopted to investigate the IT and sales departments in each firm. The results of an analysis of 164 sales managers suggested that alliance management capabilities and IT readiness influence MSC, which in turn promotes innovation performance. We also test the moderating effect of environmental turbulence on mobile service using a sample of 164 sales professionals and 94 IT professionals. We found that technology turbulence alone has no significant moderating effect on either sales or IT managers; however, the effect of environmental turbulence, the combination of technology and market turbulence, moderates the effect of operant resources, which contributes to MSC. Our findings suggest that networking activities are intangible resources that require skills and knowledge that are not grounded in routine activities. As the result, a firm’s openness to accelerating networking experience is important. This study contributes to the innovation literature by suggesting that firms should obtain and develop operant resources that promote mobile service co-innovation. Furthermore, this study contributes to the evolving S-D logic by empirically validating the concept of MSC, which complements the S-D logic literature to extend the theory toward a more comprehensive theory.