Among the strategies used by organizations, including service organizations, with the intention to be competitive in the market and in front of competitors, there is the constant search for innovation. The studies focused on innovation in the manufacturer sector are traditional and numerous. Utterback (1994) studied different industries, including the nonassembled industries (like the glass industry) in order to understand how the process of innovation is and how the dominant design happens. Henderson e Clark (1990) developed a framework for defining innovation from the analysis of two dimensions, the core concepts and the linkages between core concepts and components. Pavitt (1984) proposed a taxonomy for innovation in industries considering the synergy among the organizations. In the service sector there are innovation studies too, proposing generic classifications, mainly from the technology changes and/or integrative changes. There are studies like Barras (1986), Shostack (1987), Gallouj & Weinstein (1997), Miozzo & Soete (2001), among others. But these studies do not consider a historical analysis of the service organizations, neither try to understand how the dynamic of these innovation works in an organization time line. The importance of the service sector in the Brazilian economy is gradually increasing, becoming a very important theme. Among the services in expansion, the tourism stands out because it is a social phenomenon associated with different activities, like transportation, hospitality, food and entertainment. Considering the tourism sector is growing a lot in the last years and the hospitality industry is an important part that compounds the infrastructure in this sector, a theoretical and empiric study in the hospitality industry is pertinent. In this manner, starting from the increasing role of the services in the economy, the importance of innovation for the competitiveness in this sector and the focus in the hospitality industry; as well as the recognition of two frameworks much accepted in the Academy for analysis of service, that are the "Reverse Cycle" framework of Barras (1986) and the framework for service classification of Gallouj & Weinstein (1997); this study presents the limitations of these frameworks analyzing multiple case studies that were done in an organization from the hospitality industry and propose adjustments to the frameworks from the results of the research.

The objective of this paper was to identify the dimensions of the imitation construct between companies and to propose an operating procedure to measure it in business sectors. The imitation was conceptualized as a copy of capabilities. Putting them into operation was made RESUMOO objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar as dimensões do construto imitação entre empresas e propor um procedimento operacional para sua mensuração nos setores empresariais. A imitação foi conceituada como cópia de competências. Sua operacionalização foi feita pela facilidade de compreendê-las. Colheram-se as percepções de 112 gestores de 14 setores da economia brasileira no Estado de São Paulo. Utilizou-se a base de dados da Federação da Indústria do estado de São Paulo (Fiesp). As dimensões subjacentes ao construto foram identificadas pela análise fatorial exploratória. Os resultados indicam que a imitação em um setor tende a ser maior quanto menos se realizam atividades de pesquisa e desenvolvimento (P&D), menor é a importância do grau de escolaridade nos processos produtivos, mais baixo é o conteúdo tecnológico dos produtos e processos e menos relevante é a montagem dos produtos.PALAVRAS-CHAVE Imitação entre empresas, mensuração da imitação, competências organizacionais, regime tecnológico, pesquisa e desenvolvimento.

O presente ensaio teórico resgata o conceito de serviço, tendo como enfoque a inovação no setor de serviços. Após a exposição sobre a importância do setor na economia nacional e mundial e descrição sobre as características peculiares que diferenciam os serviços dos bens, faz-se uma explanação sobre como a teoria tem tratado a questão de inovação em serviços. Finalmente, destaca-se o importante papel da tecnologia como meio para inovação em serviços, principalmente no que tange os serviços voltados para a informação.

ABSTRACT:The goal of this article is to join the theoretical contributions of operations management and economical theory for the analysis of services' strategic positioning. In the beginning it presents the explanation about three services taxonomies with similar conceptual formation; these taxonomies are centered in the process perspective and the goal is to develop their contributions for the service strategic analysis. On one hand, it shows the operations vision in relationship to the client contact, the process standardization and the production capacity. On the other hand, it shows the economic vision and it takes into consideration three perspectives: i) the main process involved, if concentrated on people, physical goods, or information; ii) the relationship with the client and the grade of standardization and professional capacity; iii) the degree of capital intensity and scale. As a result, it proposes an integration matrix based on three variables: capital intensity, scale and client's contact.