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Top1. Introduction
The existing literature shows that service innovation plays an important role in pursuing firms’ performance (e.g., Cheng & Krumwiede, 2010, 2012; Grawe, Chen, & Daugherty, 2009). Moreover, service innovation is an important factor in maintaining a firm’s competitive advantage in the manufactory industry. However, “uncovering the organizational antecedents of service innovation is still one of the main challenges in (service) innovation literature” (Janssen, Castaldi, & Alexiev, 2016; Tuzovic, Wirtz, & Heracleous, 2018, p. 41) because there are different categories of and unclear definitions of service innovation that can be found from service innovation literature (e.g., Carlborg, Kindström & Kowalkowski, 2014; Snyder et al., 2016; Witell et al., 2016). Service innovation is difficult to achieve for firms because service innovation entails distinct resources, capabilities (e.g., Randhawa, Wilden, & Gudergan, 2014; Rusanen, Halinen, & Jaakkola, 2014; Windler et al., 2017) and knowledge process activities (e.g., Consoli & Elche, 2014; Janssen et al., 2016). Drawing on the synthesis approach, service innovation refers to the firm’s ability is able to integrate new knowledge from multiple resources and capabilities for new service and value creation (Hu, Horng, & Sun, 2009; Liu, 2009; Skålén et al., 2015; Yang, Marlow, & Lu, 2009).
In particular, the previous study has shown that service innovation is rooted in the resources/capabilities (e.g., Gebauer, Gustafsson, & Witell, 2011; Melton & Hartlin, 2015; Kindstrom, Kowalkowski, & Sandberg, 2013; Kindstrom & Kowalkowski, 2014) and knowledge sharing processes (e.g., Hu, Horng, & Sun, 2009; Wu, 2016). Additionally, in order to promote service innovation, some researchers have started to study knowledge processes/knowledge management to investigate conceptual links to dynamic capabilities (e.g., Shang, Lin, & Wu, 2009; Sambamurthy & Subramani, 2005). The dynamic capability has been recognized that “the ability to integrate, transfer and use the knowledge on an ongoing basis underpins the firms’ capabilities and competitive advantage” (Easterby-Smith & Prieto, 2008, p. 235; Teece, 1998). However, the existing literature does not provide a clear picture of how the firm enables itself to apply resources and capabilities to enhance service innovation through knowledge sharing processes in terms of knowledge donation and knowledge collection.