Peter R Magnusson

Managing User Involvement in Service Innovation: Experiments with Innovating End Users

Although user involvement is frequently practiced in companies, the research findings regarding its benefits for innovation are contradictory. This article experimentally assesses the contributions made by users in comparison with professional service developers and examines how the implementation of user involvement affects the outcome. During periods of 12 days, three different groups were assigned the task of generating ideas for end user telecom services. One group consisted of professional de signers, whereas the other two consisted of ordinary users. The users in one of the groups coped with idea creation by themselves, whereas the other group consulted a service design expert at two controlled meetings who provided feedback regarding technical feasibility. Involving users makes the ideas more original, holding a higher perceived user value, but the users’ideas are less producible on aver-age. The outcome was also affected by how user involvement was implemented. Scholarly and managerial implications conclude the article.

Value in use through service experience

Purpose – The aim of this article is to propose a framework for a new perspective on the total service experience, which dimensions influence it, and how a service experience is linked to value in use.Design/methodology/approach – The article is conceptual and suggests a new theoretical frame of reference describing value in use through service experience in technology‐based services.Findings – According to this article, a service experience is the total functional and emotional value of a consumed service. The service experience is unique to every individual customer and the service consumption situation. Value in use is the cognitive evaluation of the service experience.Research limitations/implications – The framework is discussed in the context of technology‐based services and will provide a basis for future research. Empirical studies are called for concerning service experiences in different kinds of service contexts.Originality/value – This article contributes a new framework, illustrating the serv...

13C imaging-a new diagnostic platform.

The evolution of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been astounding since the early 1980s, and a broad range of applications has emerged. To date, clinical imaging of nuclei other than protons has been precluded for reasons of sensitivity. However, with the recent development of hyperpolarization techniques, the signal from a given number of nuclei can be increased as much as 100,000 times, sufficient to enable imaging of nonproton nuclei. Technically, imaging of hyperpolarized nuclei offers several unique properties, such as complete lack of background signal and possibility for local and permanent destruction of the signal by means of radio frequency (RF) pulses. These properties allow for improved as well as new techniques within several application areas. Diagnostically, the injected compounds can visualize information about flow, perfusion, excretory function, and metabolic status. In this review article, we explain the concept of hyperpolarization and the techniques to hyperpolarize 13C. An overview of results obtained within angiography, perfusion, and catheter tracking is given, together with a discussion of the particular advantages and limitations. Finally, possible future directions of hyperpolarized 13C MRI are pointed out.

Exploring the role of front-line employees as innovators

This article aims for a deeper understanding of front-line employees (FLEs) and their boundary-spanning role in service organizations’ innovation processes from the vantage points of creativity and service innovation theory. It explores in particular FLEs’ processes of creativity by focusing on how ideas emerge and how these ideas are further managed in the organizations’ innovation processes. It draws on an in-depth empirical study of three units at a large spa and resort hotel. The article demonstrates how FLEs’ ideas are related to the assimilation and utilization of knowledge gained in the customer–supplier interface. Furthermore, it introduces the concept of ‘management by weaving’, which encompasses the middle managers’ roles in the complexity of leading diverse innovation processes in the service organization. By having the roles of facilitator, gatekeeper, and translator, middle managers hold the key position for letting FLEs play the role as innovators.

Increased understanding of service experiences through involving users in service development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to bring better understanding to how involving users in the development process of new mobile phone services can increase understanding of the overall service experience in a technology‐based service setting.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an experimental setting which aims to emulate the involvement of users in a service development process in order to provide information regarding the overall service experience. This is done by letting users evaluate both user‐ and company‐created services.Findings – Users are found to be an important information source when it comes to understanding the overall service experience of technology‐based services. The paper shows that users are to some extent better at coming up with services regarding value in use. The findings show that some of the most important experience outcomes that are demanded, functionally related outcomes, are better met by user‐created services.Research limitations/implications – The pap...

Modeling of superconducting first- and second-order low-pass sigma-delta modulators

Here we present our studies of first- and second-order superconducting low-pass sigma-delta modulators with the filtering function realized using an RL-circuit. These modulators have been simulated for different circuit parameters using device level simulations. A linear discrete time model of the first-order modulator has been done. Simulations of the first-order sigma-delta modulator operating at an oversampling ratio of 128 and a bandwidth of 60 MHz give a maximum SNR of 70 dB using a resistance of only 1 m/spl Omega/. The SNR dependence on the parameters of the RL-filter is well predicted by the linear model. Some circuit parameters give however rise to harmonic distortions which can not be predicted by the simple linear model. Under the same conditions, the performance of second-order sigma-delta modulators was found to have a maximum SNR of only 82 dB. We conclude that the estimated upper bound on SNR for superconducting RL-filtered low-pass sigma-delta modulators, is for physical realizable circuits not high enough to give an advantage over other techniques.

Casting for service innovation : The roles of frontline employees

The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of frontline employees (FLEs) in service innovation processes and how they contribute to these roles. In the literature, FLEs are argued to play an ...

Understanding Public Service Innovation as Resource Integration and Creation of Value Propositions: Understanding Public Service Innovation

This paper departs from research on Public Service Logic (PSL) to advance a framework ofpublic service innovation (PSI) by incorporating the notions of resource integration and valueproposition. Th ...