Mari Holopainen

Exploring service design in the context of architecture

Development of services is a demanding task and requires new perspectives as well as appropriate tools and techniques. This paper forms an overview of the concept of service design, which has recently gained ground. This concept is applied to an empirical study, which explores how professional designers develop services. The main method of the study is participant observation taking place in an architects office. As a result, the study describes in detail how services are designed in the context of architecture. The study suggests that professional designers apply several methods, which could increase our understanding of service design and service development.

An Investigation of the Theory Practice Gap in Professional Sales

This article considers the theory-practice gap in professional sales. Scholars note a discrepancy between scholarly knowledge and the practice of selling. We study three exemplar gaps using an extensive qualitative dataset, mainly in-depth interviews, in order to better understand why these gaps exist. Theory-practice gaps in listening, follow-up, and adaptability have not been empirically confirmed in light of rapid change in the sales field. After confirming these gaps, we explore antecedents, uncovering several underlying reasons for gap formation. We consider theoretical and managerial implications. In particular, we elaborate on the need for theory to be more relevant and contextualized.

Involving Customers in the Service Innovation Process

This chapter examines practices of involving customers in the service innovation process. Even though customer-centric views are increasingly gaining ground in the literature, there is not much research into the organisation of innovation processes in which customers actually participate. In this chapter we describe an action-research project where we, together with a case company, developed and tested several methods for customer participation. The company is a medium-sized Finnish insurance company which has developed several incremental service innovations during recent years. As the next step it wanted to adopt a systematic, genuinely customer-oriented innovation model.

Including Customer Representatives in the Development of the Service Innovation ‘Model’ for an Insurance Company

This case study describes an innovation process in which customer representatives participated. The case company is a medium-sized Finnish insurance company which has developed several individual service innovations during recent years (e.g. an online application system and decisions concerning indemnities, and a specific mapping service concerning insurance needs). Nevertheless, the company has realised that its innovation activities are still product-oriented, focusing on the development of insurance products and IT systems. Our case study describes an action research project, where the authors together with the company pursued a new type of process model for service innovation which would support the systematic implementation of a strong customer perspective. Here, we concentrate on the description of customer interaction in this work. The interaction was organised as a series of development workshops in which representatives of customers participated.