Service Innovation (Concepts, Features, Approaches, Perspectives and Policies)

The attention to service sector and innovation in service organizations is the key factor effective on many leading companies and developed countries successes. According to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report, today service sector comprises 60 percent of economy of forty superior economic countries in the world. Also, evidences show that, the share of service sector in our economy in recent years has increased and it is more than the total shares of industry and agriculture sectors. Despite the key role of service in the economic development of countries, this issue has been ignored in terms of theory in our country. Evidences that imply the importance and essence of service sector in the economy of many countries show the necessity of studying the issue of services innovation and presenting several related policies and strategies in order to enhancing service innovation in our country. In order to filling this gap, this paper aims at reviewing the concepts of service and service innovation, service innovation features, some researches in the field of service innovation and existing approaches about service innovation. Furthermore, some proposed policies by Cambridge University and several researchers were presented regarding to service innovation. At the end some recommended policies toward enhancing innovation in service sector are presented that encompass some suggestions for researchers, innovators and policy makers. Companies and organization in service sectors can enhance rate of innovation by implementing the proposed suggestions in this paper.