Conceptualizing the Microfoundations of Dynamic Capabilities for Service Innovation: Grounded in the Synthesis Approach

Despite new service development becoming a major corporate concern across the economy, insights into the organizational antecedents of service innovation remain limited.This limitation is partly attributable to the scarcity of observable R&D activities within service organizations, but more fundamentally, it stems from the prevailing perception that the conventional notion of R&D is not well suited to the context of service development.Accordingly, there is a growing need to investigate the organizational capabilities that enable firms to explore new ideas and transform them into marketable service offerings with actual demand and profit potential.This study conceptualizes Dynamic Service Innovation Capabilities (DSICs) applicable across diverse industrial sectors and proposes measurement scales to operationalize them.The proposed framework not only integrates existing literature on the unique characteristics of service innovation but also provides implications regarding the evolutionary nature of new service development, thereby explaining how DSICs are conceptualized through a synthesis approach to service development.For this purpose, this study operationally defines and refines DSICs, and then develops their measurement scales using sample data collected from firms across diverse industries.The survey subjects are business units from domestic manufacturing and service firms, and a total of 249 valid questionnaires are used for analysis.Utilizing these survey data, this study derives measurement scales reflecting each capability from exploratory factor analysis.Then it verifies their validity and reliability through reliability analysis using Cronbach's and confirmatory factor analysis.Subsequently, it identifies common method bias through Harman's single factor analysis, verifies the structural paths between constructs through structural equation modeling analysis, and performs a series of statistical methodologies to confirm their relationship with firm performance through nomological validity analysis.The empirical analysis reveals that individual DSICs exhibit distinct and significant correlations with firm performance.The findings demonstrate the validity of five complementary measurement scales for DSICs, which can be utilized to assess a firm's service innovation capabilities.Furthermore, the study offers practical guidance for firms seeking to align their organizational antecedents to support new service development effectively.