Towards Explaining Smart Service Innovation Events and Trajectories

How and why can smart technologies affect service innovation trajectories? We address this question via a multiple case study approach. First, we identify two dimensions for smart service innovation events: while performing and patterning characterize two distinct mechanisms of smart service innovation, flexible technologies and routines represent constituent elements of smart service systems. Building on these two dimensions, we delineate four ideal types of smart service innovation events and illustrate how these materialize in real-world contexts. Finally, we outline how our findings may serve as a starting point for future research and provide managerial guidelines for those aiming to shape innovation trajectories in smart service systems.