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Research on service innovation appears in several research disciplines, with important contributions in marketing, management, and operations research. Although the concept is widely used, few research papers have explicitly defined service innovation. This dearth of research is the motivation for the present study. Through a systematic review of 1301 articles on service innovation appearing in academic journals between 1979 and 2014, this article examines research defining service innovation. The study identifies the key characteristics within 84 definitions of service innovation in different perspectives (assimilation, demarcation and synthesis) and shows how the meaning of the concept is changing. The review suggests that the large variety in definitions limits and hinders knowledge development of service innovation.

Service innovation acts as society's engine of renewal and provides the necessary catalyst for the service sector's economic growth. Despite service innovation's importance, the concept remains fuzzy and poorly defined. Building on an extensive and systematic review of 1,046 academic articles, this research investigates and explores how service innovation is defined and used in research. Results identify four unique service innovation categorizations emphasizing the following traits: (1) degree of change, (2) type of change, (3) newness, and (4) means of provision. The results show that most research focuses inward and views service innovation as something (only) new to the firm. Interestingly, service innovation categorizations appear to neglect both customer value and financial performance.

Drawing on three studies using data from six separate samples of 1151 health care customers, the authors investigate cocreative customer practices, modeling the effects of customer value cocreation practices on well-being. Results highlight that while positive interactions with medical staff (doctors) lead to increased well-being through engaging in coproducing treatment options, interactions with friends and family and their associated cocreated activities have an even greater positive effect on well-being. Furthermore, several other customer-directed activities have positive indirect effects. Interestingly, activities requiring change can have a negative effect on well-being, except in psychological illnesses, where the opposite is true. The authors conclude with theoretical and managerial implications, highlighting that if interactions and activities with medical professionals are supplemented with customer-directed activities, the positive effect on well-being is significantly enhanced.

Purpose-The purpose of this study is to synthesize findings from health care research with those in service research to identify key conceptualizations of the changing role of the health care customer, to identify gaps in theory, and to propose a compelling research agenda. Design/methodology/approach-This study combines a meta-narrative review of health care research, and a systematic review of service research, using thematic analysis to identify key practice approaches and the changing role of the health care customer. Findings-The review reveals different conceptualizations of the customer role within the ten key practice approaches, and identifies an increased activation of the role of health care customer over time. This change implies a reorientation , that is, moving away from the health care professional setting the agenda, prescribing and delivering treatment where the customer merely complies with orders, to the customer actively contributing and co-creating value with service providers and other actors in the ecosystem to the extent the health care customer desires. Originality/value-This study not only identifies key practice approaches by synthesizing findings from health care research with those in service research, it identifies how the role of the health care customer is changing and highlights effects of the changing role across the practice approaches. A research agenda to guide future health care service research is also provided.