Advancing innovation in professional service firms: Insights from the Service-dominant Logic

Abstract

Innovation is of continuing interest to professional service firms (PSFs) and scholars who study them. Nevertheless, innovation in PSFs remains relatively under-researched, with existing studies often taking a firm-centric perspective on innovation. This paper utilises the Service-dominant Logic (SDL)—a framework that has recently gained the recognition from service innovation scholars—and applies it to a case of innovation in an engineering firm. The SDL investigates innovation from a customer-centred standpoint, thereby extending the current understanding of innovation in PSFs. Yet, challenges with applying the SDL to the case suggest that innovation in PSFs is to a certain degree unique. We consequently develop a theoretical framework and propositions for studying innovation in PSFs that integrates principles from the SDL and the literature on PSFs, resulting in the Professional Service Innovation Logic (PSIL).