The Impact of Intra- and Interfirm Collaboration on Service Innovation in B2b Firms

Service innovation is recognized as a fundamental source of competitive advantage in B2B settings, with positive effects on customers, business partners, employees, and society. Scholars have pointed out that innovation does not result from a single economic actor but from a complex process in which a range of actors interact. Previous studies on service innovation in B2B highlight the integration of multiple actors in the service innovation process and suggest that it improves performance. However the knowledge on the performance effect of intraand inter-firm collaboration is nevertheless not conclusive. The aim of this study is to provide new perspectives in explaining how intraand interfirm collaboration in B2B can improve service innovation performance. Specifically, we examine the effect of involving employees, customers and partners in the service innovation process for incremental and radical innovation. In order to pursue our aim, an empirical study was conducted on a sample of 404 B2B firms in five European countries (Finland, Austria, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland). The results of the study show that actors have different roles in service innovation: intra-firm collaboration and customer collaboration have an effect for both incremental and radical service innovation, while business partner involvement has an effect on radical service innovation.