Continuous value shaping: A boundary concept for innovating service innovation approaches
Abstract Technological advancements and evolving value orientations reshape future value creation and pose new requirements for service innovation. While a variety of disciplines are developing new approaches to drive service innovation, this is primarily done in isolation and generates only fragmented solutions. Sociological theory has proposed “boundary objects” as an effective umbrella for communication and cooperation among communities. Therefore, we introduce continuous value shaping (CVS) as a boundary object describing service innovation approaches along five principles. We reflect on this concept through the different disciplinary lenses of researchers in service marketing, information systems, service engineering, sociology of work, and innovation management. These perspectives highlight how the CVS principles already connect to discourses within the individual disciplines. However, the CVS concept will not only provide an umbrella to embrace existing activities in different academic disciplines. It also assists to identify research themes that will benefit from uniting the power of these disciplines, and it can serve as an integrating framework to conceptualize complex service innovation approaches. Thus, the CVS concept should guide both researchers and practitioners to develop and implement novel innovation and transformation efforts—in and across organizations.
Authors
- Gerhard Satzger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8731-654X)
- Thomas Meiren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6351-0101)
- Gerhard Gudergan
- Tilo Böhmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5473-5829)
- Stefanie Paluch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7478-4149)
- Daniel Beverungen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4216-3276)
- Jens Hogreve (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0997-7806)
- Susanne Robra-Bissantz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9972-3935)
- Angela Roth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6097-0119)
- Jan Marco Leimeister (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1990-2894)
- Nancy V. Wünderlich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3786-506X)
- Christoph Peters (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8140-1516)
- Carina Benz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5614-1772)
- Christoph F. Breidbach (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8992-4044)
- Jens Poeppelbuss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4960-7818)
- Andreas Boes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8443-3396)
- Christian Kurtz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6943-7356)
- Tom Lewandowski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0283-691X)
- Rainer Nägele (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0298-4130)
- Martin Gersch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3468-0097)
- Jochen Wirtz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6297-4498)
- Barbara Langes
- Carsten Schultz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5984-9872)
- Jan H. Schumann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9361-2932)
Institutions
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
- University of Kassel (DE)
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (DE)
- University of Passau (DE)
- Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (DE)
- University of St.Gallen (CH)
- Berlin School of Economics and Law (DE)
- Paderborn University (DE)
- Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (DE)
- Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (DE)
- Universität der Bundeswehr München (DE)
- Institut für Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung (DE)
- BH Consulting (Ireland) (IE)
- Technische Universität Berlin (DE)
- Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
- RWTH Aachen University (DE)
- Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
- Technische Universität Braunschweig (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Electronic Markets
- Published
- 2025-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-025-00771-1
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Service and Product Innovation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.07
Funders
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
- Universität Hamburg